Battlestar Orpheus
by BSGfan32
Summary: A retired Admiral helps to save a large segment of the Colonies and ends up leading them on a journey following in Galactica's wake. What will they find along the way and what happens when the 2 fleets meet up?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 1: Prologue**

Andrew Kronus ( a retired admiral from the Cylon War), held fast to the assumption that because no-one had heard from the Cylons for 40 years, that they were concentrating on building up their forces for an attack on the Colonies. The current leadership of the military refused to lend any credence to this, so when he had taken retirement, Andrew had used his families vast wealth to form the Militech Corporation to enable him to build up his own military force. For every 2 decommissioned ships Militech purchased, he would have one sent to Valhalla Anchorage to be refitted with the best hardware and technology available and be stored ready for activation within a moments notice.

Valhalla Anchorage was a large facility owned by Militech, with a permanent staffing of 5 thousand to man the munitions stores and dock facilities. Being a military contractor meant that there was a lot of the staff from the Colonial Military that were designated as being on detached duty. The location of the station was kept a secret and therefore was never entered into any computer databases.

**Valhalla Anchorage – 3 weeks before Judgement Day**

With a brief flash of light, a mighty battlestar emerged from it's FTL jump near the large space station owned by the Militech Corporation. The Battlestar Orpheus was the newest edition to the secret fleet amassed within the Valhalla nebulae. A Mercury class vessel that had been experiencing a whole myriad of computer malfunctions ever since it entered service. The Colonial Goverment had decided to scrap this troublesome ship and as such it had been sold to Militech.

"Comms, contact the station let them know we need a berth" Commander Mark Benedict called out across the CIC.

Colonel Karl Omega looked across the plot table at his CO. "How many ships does this make it that Kronus now has within his fleet?"

" With the addition of the Orpheus, I believe that the fleet now consists of 7 Battlestars, 5 Gunstars, 9 Firestars, 11 Guardian class destroyers, 15 Sentinel class frigates, 6 agro ships, 3 or 4 mining ships, a Viper production ship, a hospital ship and a refinery ship. That's not mentioning all the vipers, cobra's, raptor's and shuttles. All he needs is passenger vessels and he could move and protect a significantly large portion of the population should we ever encounter a worst case scenario"

The Colonel let out a low whistle as he slowly shook his head.

"Commander, One minute till docking in Alpha bay." announced the XO.

"Prepare mooring clamps" instructed the commander.

"Cut main thrusters, let our momentum take us in." said Benedict as he watched the forward monitor. "Helmsmen, station keeping thrusters in 5…4…3…2…1 NOW and lock mooring clamps." A small cheer let loose amongst the crew in the CIC, as the mooring clamps engaged. The Orpheus was finally at its new home and unknown to the Admiralty would be overhauled and ready for action again within a few days thanks to the advanced facilities operated by Militech.

As soon as the mighty Battlestar was securely connected to the docking arm and the airlock was opened, a small army of technicians rushed passed the Commander and his senior offices to begin work on the overhaul. As soon as he could Commander Benedict entered the station to meet with his counterpart and arrange R & R for his crew.

The meeting with Admiral Kronus was short and 2 weeks of R & R was arranged for everyone on board before the Orpheus would be taken out for it's first test cruise.

**Valhalla Anchorage – Judgement Day.**

Commander Benedict and Admiral Kronus had just finishing up a meeting to discuss the finalisation of the Orpheus's overhaul and it's intergartion within the growing Militech fleet.

"So... when Bill arrives back on Caprica, I am going to offer him a job here overseeing the training of the Battlestar crews" Kronus said.

"I'll never understand why he was never promoted to Admiral. Despite Galactica's age, Adama's kept her the most effective force in the fleet"

"Did you know that I tried to buy Galactica, but President Adar decided she would serve better as a museum. I bet old Bill's having kittens over that."

That brought about a chuckles from both men, only to be interupted by the stations communications systems.

"Admiral, we have received a priority one message from Picon Fleet HQ... It was transmitted in the clear, sir" a young ensign said.

"In the clear...that doesn't sound good. Ok Ensign Halle, put it on speakers"

Ensign Halle made the appropriate adjustments on her communications console.

"... Repeat. This is Picon Fleet Headquarters to all Colonial Fleet Units, Cylon attack under way. This is no drill. I repeat. This is Picon Fleet Headquarters to ..."


	2. Chapter 2 Part 1

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Ch****apter 2 : The Rescue - Part 1**

Admiral Kronus and Commander Benedict rushed through the door into the CIC. A stunned silence had descended over the room at the news they had just heard. Being the first to recover from the shock, Admiral Kronus looked around the room at his staff_. They are all so young but then so was I when the war started. I need to get their minds focused on something useful_ he thought to himself.

"We all knew that this day would come. Every last one of you needs to stand firm to your duties and I promise that we will all get through this day. Comms….monitor the fleet channels and find out what the situation is out there, we will need all the information we can get if we are going to help our people. Ops…. Get the fleet into operation status immediately. I have a feeling we will need every available ship. Commander…. I want you to return to your ship and prepare your crew for action. Let's get to it people."

People jumped up to carry out the tasks they had been set, as if suddenly energized into action. The CIC bustled with activity. Admiral Kronus watched with proud detachment as his people focused on their jobs with a cool professionalism.

"Admiral, I have an update on the engagement. Picon Fleet HQ has been destroyed, 30 Battlestars have been lost in the opening attack. Admiral Nagala has taken command of the fleet aboard the Battlestar Atlantia and is heading up a task force on route to the orbit of Libra to attack the Cylon fleet. A recall has been sent out to all ex-military personnel. Thermonuclear explosions in the 50 Kiloton range have been reported on the colonies of Caprica, Picon, Tauron, Geminon and Sagitaron. President Adar has offered a complete surrender but they Cylons apparently have failed to respond. It looks like this is Armageddon"

"By the Lords of Kobol…….Casualties must be in the millions. Even if the Fleet can defeat the Cylons, those planets will be uninhabitable for centuries."

Admiral Kronus turned his aged face towards the window looking out over the vast nebula and the fleet it held within its confines. An idea began to form in his mind, but he had to act quickly for it to work.

"Contact the Commanders of all our armed ships and have them spool up their FTL drives for a jump to the Colonies. Have as many of the stations shuttles transferred to the battlestars as possible. While the fleet engages the Cylons, it will buy us time to slip our ships in behind the lines and evacuate as many people as possible from those Colonies that have been hit. I don't care if the civilian are crammed into those ships like sardines, just have them get as many as possible out of there and bring them here. If they can find any jump capable ships that can be utilized have them do so. If the Fleet can successful drive the Cylons off we will approach the other colonies if not we will make further plans at that time. I'll take a raptor over to the Orpheus and oversee the mission from there."

"Message relayed Admiral. All ships will jump in 20 minutes"

**Onboard the Battlestar Orpheus**.

Commander Benedict replaced the handset on the side of the plot table. Placing both has hand on the edge of the table he bowed his head in a moment of contemplation. His ship had still not had a shakedown cruise after the refit of her computer systems and now he was being asked to take her into a combat zone to rescue the survivors of a nuclear holocaust. The crew were young, although most of them hired by Militech when they left military service.

"Captain Pearce, plot an FTL jump to Caprica that will put us in a low orbit over Caprica City, and have the CAG ready all available Raptor's and shuttles for an emergency evac from the surface. Advise him that the viper squadrons will remain with us in case the Cylons show up – we may have to buy them time. We'll jump as soon as the Admiral gets here."

"Aye Sir"

The Battlestars Orpheus, Minotaur and Vigilant were to head to Caprica, the Battlestars Titan and Cyclops with the Gunstar Olympia would head to Tauron, whilst the Gunstar Adelphia and Battlestar Atlantis would head to Geminon and the Battlestar Morpheus and the Gunstars Achillies, Athena, Orion and Oberon would conduct the operation at Sagartaron. The rest of the ships would be divided into 8 seperate task forces that would jump into the asteroid belt and wait. If things were to go badly then they would look for an opportunity to head to the remaining colonies and conduct rescue operations . The idea was to rescue as many people as possible and be in and out of the system as soon as possible in case the Cylons were able to break through the fleet lines and return to finish off their extermination of the Colonies.

"All hands prep for FTL jump in 5…4…3….2…1"

The small task force emerged in a bright flash of light, into a scene straight from hell. The remains of ships and defense platforms littered the space around the planet, explosion still visible lighting up the wreckage. Colonel Omega and Commander Benedict glanced at each other across the room a silent message of disbelief passing between them before turning back towards the Dradis display.

"Launch all Vipers to form a defensive perimeter around the task force. CAG, get our birds down to the surface" Colonel Omega called into the handset before replacing it on the hook of the plot table. "Set condition one throughout the ship and let's prepare for incoming survivors"

**Battlestar Orpheus Raptor Squadron**

Captain Alexi "Zeus" Dualla, took a deep breathe as he looked out at the planets surface through the cockpits windscreen. Dead bodies littered the ground in their hundreds,and large area's of the once densely populated capital cities were now no more than smoking pile of rubble. But as they passed over the suburbs he could see that most of the buildings were still all intact.

"Let's concentrate people. We have a lot of work ahead of us. These people are depending on us."

The Shuttles and Raptor's landed at the space port on the edge of the city and as the flight crews opened the hatches throngs of scared people surged forward from the cover of the surrounding buildings. There were a lot that obviously needed medical attention and Alexi made a decision to take those people first. The frightened civilians surged toward the shuttles desperate to be taken away from the horror that was all around them. Order had to be gained if they were to get anything achieved. With deliberate slow movement Alexi removed his sidearm and raised it in the air and fired off a single shot. The crowd stopped, silence filled the air as they all looked toward the captain, too frightened to move.

"People, we will take as many of you as we can but you need to be patient. Those needing medical attention will be taken first then we the shuttles will return for the rest of you."

As the wounded were starting to be loaded, Alexi glanced around the port facilities. At a few of the loading terminals, he saw half a dozen Pan Galactic liners and to one corner of the field were 3 Military Geminon Freighters.

"Is there anyone here with flight experience?"

A couple of dozen hands went up in the crowd.

"I want you to divide up and get those ships up and running. We can use those to take more people. Use volunteers to help if necessary but get those ships loaded and into orbit. Once you are in orbit contact the Battlestar Orpheus for instructions"

The operation went surprisingly quickly, as many survivors had already made their way to the space ports hoping for salvation. Within an hour they had managed to take everyone from the space port onboard the ships and had the Raptor's and Shuttle's collecting people from the other cities and settlements on the planet.

**Battlestar Orpheus **

It had been a tense 2 hours since they had jumped into orbit of Caprica, the evacuation was well underway and the task force vessels were filling up fast with refugee's. They had been joined in orbit by passenger liners, freighters and military transports. In total, an extra 22 vessels full to the gilled with survivors as well. But bad news had arrived as well. The fight was not going well for the Colonial Fleet. Intercepted transmissions revealed that ships were experiencing malfunctions just as they got within range of the Cylons. In many cases entire battlestars had just shut down and never got to fire a shot before being destroyed by a barrage of nuclear missiles. Time was running out.

"Dradis contact. 3 baseships. Their launching raiders"

Admiral Kronus studied the Dradis display for a second before speaking. "Commander, get the civilian ships to take up position between us and the planet, but have them maintain as close as possible to one another. With all these wrecked Battlestar's in the vicinity the Cylons may just mistake the civies for one of them. Have our vipers engage the raiders as far out as possible and Minotaur and Vigilant to deploy their squadrons in a defensive perimeter around the task force"

"Comms. Relay to the CAG, we have company. Return to the barn. Inform the vipers to engage the raiders as far out as they can, soon as we have recovered the shuttles have the vipers returns…..combat landings. All ships will then jump to Valhalla in sequence. We'll jump last." Commander Benedict instructed his crew.

**Orpheus Viper Squadrons**

"Orpheus, this is Hera. I have visual contact on the Cylon raiders and am moving to engage." Lieutenant Susan "Hera" Meredith called into her radio mic.

"Acknowledged Hera. Take them out" responded Ensign Jason Cain. Hera began firing on the raiders. She was the best shot on the ship. Without warning the Cylon ships broke formation and accelerated towards the Vipers.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Hera. The raiders each launched a missile from their underbellies headed in the direction of the Battlestars. They spun around quickly and began firing their guns at the vipers. The colonial pilots attempted evasive maneuvers but several viper pilots weren't fast enough and their viper's exploded in brief fireballs. These Cylon raiders were nothing like the ships the Colonial pilots had seen in the museums. It was sleek and deadly looking. Shaped like a Scimitar. It was a pure predator, it's single red eye pulsing back and forth.

Hera spun her viper around and pursued the raider that had just passed her. She fired off a few short bursts but the Cylon ship was just too evasive. It was taking all her concentration just to keep up with the Raider. A few high-caliber bullets whizzed past the cockpit of her viper as another raider flew by. The wireless was filled with reports, people cheering hits and cursing close calls.

"I'm hit! I'm hit! They got my engine!" the line cut out as the viper in question vanished in a flaming explosion.

"Orpheus, this is Hera; we're losing a lot of pilots out here! It's a bloodbath"

Suddenly the raider she was chasing spun completely around and headed straight for her. Hera continued to close the distance as long as she could then at the last moment fired her guns shredding the raider before pulling away from the wreckage in a high G turn.

"This is Burnout. I have one on my tail and I can't shake them lose." Hera turned her viper and went to help Burnout.

"Hang in there Burnout, I'm coming to help"

She steadied her sights on the Raider as she moved in closer and fired.. The Cylon Raider was blown apart.


	3. Chapter 2 Part 2

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

Chapter 2: The Rescue - Part 2

**Battlestar Orpheus**

The CIC has a hive of activity as the crews went about their duties. This was after all what they had trained for.

"Radiological Alarm. We have inbound nukes." Captain Pearce shouted out quickly gaining the command staffs attention.

"Initiate Suppression fire. Tell our birds to stay the frak away from our firing solution" Commander Benedict replied.

A thick hale of gunfire erupted from the flank of the large Battlestar, impacting with the 10 missiles that were streaking through space towards them. The large caliber bullets tearing into 9 of the missiles before they could get close.

"Incoming nuclear warhead"

"All hands brace for impact."

The area around the Orpheus suddenly lit up like a supernova as the warhead slammed into the Battlestar. Glass shattered and consoles exploded all around the CIC, as the crew were thrown about like rag dolls.

The Admiral and the Commander both looked at the consoles in front of them.

"Looks like the armour plating kept most of it out Admiral. Radiation levels are within acceptable levels."

"Yes. These ships are designed for that, but let's not stick around too much longer. Have the Minotaur start jumping the ships to Valhalla. Vigilant and ourselves will try and give those toaster's a nice headache before we jump. Tell Vigilant Commander he has authorization to fire his nukes at that Basestar off to his port, have them aim for the central section. That was always the weakest spots for their ships during the war. We'll do the same to the basestar off to starboard. As soon as we launch the nukes, have the vipers land on the nearest Battlestar and then jump us back to Valhalla, Commander"

"Aye, Sir"

The two behemoths surged forwards towards their intended targets, ignoring the raiders and vipers that were dancing a duel of death around them. Within seconds each had fired two missiles that impacted at just the right spot two ignite the tylium tanks on the Basestar's causing them both to explode. The third Basestar quickly retreated out of the combat area.

With the Basestar's gone, the surviving raiders began to jump away as well. Vipers began to land on whichever Battlestar was closest. When the last Viper was aboard, both ships activated their FTL drives to return them to the relative safety of the Valhalla nebula to rejoin the rest of the task forces and start repairs and an evaluation their situation.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 3: ****Hard Decisions**

The Battlestar emerged from it's FTL jump in the midst of one of the largest collection of ships ever assembled by the colonies. Ships of many assorted types were visible as far as the eye could see. They were a motley collection of vessels representing nearly every type in the star system, passenger liners, freighters, transports, recreation ships, industrial ships all surrounded by the battle fleet from Militech.

**Battlestar Orpheus**

In the shattered remains of the CIC, the command staff stared at the Dradis display, shocked by just how many vessels were showing on the screen. Admiral Kronus ran his hand over his aged face as he contemplated his next move.

"Commander Benedict, we're going to have our work cut out for us here. I think the first thing we should do is to obtain a census of all the ships. What I want is a list of what ships we have, their current status – both crew and maintainance wise and a complete listing of all cargo as well as passenger manifests. I want you to organise that. Colonel Omega, I want a damage assessment report on all militech ships asap. Captain Pearce, have your comms officer maintain a constant watch on all channels, I want an update on the status of the fleet and if we can pick up anything from the colonies. Inform all ships commanders that I will hold a meeting in the Port hanger bay in 2 hours to hear your reports and to discuss our options. Dismissed"

The senior officers smartly snapped off a salute to the Admiral before turning to carry out their assigned tasks.

"Admiral, I think you better see this sir" Ensign Halle whispered softly before handing Kronus a sheet of paper she had printed from the communications console.

"Thankyou Ensign"

He looked down at the sheet and read the brief message.

**To All Colonial Units,**

**Am taking command of the fleet. All surviving units to fall back to Ragnar Anchorage for regroup and counter-attack.**

**Commander William Adama**

**BSG75 Galactica.**

This was not the kind of news that he was hoping to here. Galactica was to be decommissioned and therefore had no ammunition on board. _How the hell has he survived _Kronus wondered. If Adama was now senior fleet officer then he could only surmise that the fleet had been decimated. _120 battlestar and gods knew how many other ships gone. The death toll is huge._

"Captain Pearce, you have the deck" The Admiral called out as he scooped up the star charts from the plot table in to centre of the room and strode out of the CIC in the direction of the flag officers quarters he had taken over.

**Port Side Hanger Bay – 2 Hours later.**

The hastily arranged stage with its podium in the centre and they flags of all twelve colonies standing behind, looked out of place in the large open space of the hanger. Admiral Kronus walked out onto the stage and headed straight to the podium, resting the sheets of paper he was carrying in front of him. He looked out across the faces of the crowd that stared back at him, clearing his throat before speaking.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. I have asked you to gather here as representatives of every ship that has survived this holocaust. I have a brief statement to read and then I will ask Commander Benedict and Colonel Omega to give their reports. After that we will have some hard choices to make. I ask that you be patient.

As many of you are aware, the Cylons have returned from their 40 year exile. Their attack took us all by surprise, nether-the-less the Colonial Fleet bravely defended the Colonies to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately that was not enough.

We have received word that the fleet has been all but destroyed. The Battlestar Galactica is as far as we are aware the only surviving active military vessel.

The Battlestars and other military class vessels that you have seen here at Valhalla are not active Colonial Fleet vessels. They are owned Militech Corporation. Shortly after the initial attacks, all ex-military personnel were recalled to active duty, including myself. Therefore I have decided that as the Fleet is now gone, the Militech vessels I have assembled here as well as any military vessels we come recover, will form the basis for a new Colonial Military Fleet.

Commander Benedict, you now have the floor."

Admiral Kronus stepped away from the podium to allow a rather tired looking Commander to take his place at the podium.

"Thankyou Admiral. For the benefit of those who do not know me, my name is Commander Mark Benedict. I was the commanding officer for the Battlestar Orpheus before both she and myself were sent into retirement. The Admiral asked me to conduct a census of the fleet here at Valhalla Anchorage. I will start by listing the ships first. The Militech Fleet is comprised of 7 Battlestars – The Orpheus, Minotaur, Vigilant, Titan, Atlantis, Morpheus and the Theseus, 5 Gunstars – The Olympia, Adelphia, Achillies, Orion and, 6 Firestar - The Hestia, Hades, Hermes, Hephaestus, Heracles and Hercules, 5 Guardian class destroyers – The Poseidon, Ares, Demeter, Dionysus and Odysseus, 2 Sentinel Class Frigates – The Pandora and the Agamemnon as well as the Contructstar Ganymede, the refinery ship Achtaeon and the hospital ship Sysphus. We lost 3 Firestars, 6 Destroyers and 13 Frigates in the evacuation. The total crew compliment is fifty six thousand four hundred and ninety eight.

For the rescued civilian vessels, we have 42 Pan-galactic passenger liners, 23 Trans-Colonial Freighters, 12 Military Transports, 4 Recreation ships, 12 Cruise ships, 9 Agro ships, 5 Mining vessel, 23 small private ships, the Electonics ship Calliope and the Fleet Academy Training Ships Thaleia and Terpsichore. Total number of rescued personnel, two million six hundred and four thousand one hundred and three men, women and children. A survey of all cargo is being carried out as we speak, but we have enough food and water to last us for 6 months at the moment. Fuel is going to be our biggest problem at the moment."

The room erupted into total chaos as the news began to sink in. Less than 3 million had survived out of a population of over 20 billion. Admiral Kronus felt that he couldn't really blame them. Everything they had known was now gone. Homes, loved ones, even their way of life had all been lost in a single day. But life had to go on.

"People, please calm down. We have more to get through yet before we get to a decision on our future. Colonel Omega, can we have your report on the state of the ships please."

Colonel Karl Omega was never very good at public speaking, but he swallowed his nerves as he took his place at the podium.

"I have co-ordinated a survey of the systems of all the ships gathered here and the good news is that all ships have been maintained in good order. Ships crews will have to be trained to help operate the ships but otherwise we are in good shape. But, we will need to find additional ships to relieve overcrowding on nearly all vessels"

An older gentleman who had been standing towards the side of the room slowly moved towards the front of the crowd.

"Admiral, my name is Samuel Tigh. Back before the war I used to work for the Bright Star Line. I don't know if you remember, but they used to operate some of the largest cruise liners ever built. When war broke out those ships were mothballed out at the shipyard in the Cygnus System, just inside the Promar Sector. Each ship was capable of carrying over ten thousand passenger. If we could take some engineers out there we could re-activate some of those ships."

The Admiral was quiet for several minutes whilst he thought that over. Eventually coming to the conclusion that the Cylons might not have destroyed the shipyard yet due to its location. It would be worth the risk to even get two of those old liners.

"Ok, Mr Tigh. I would like you to join the team we will send. Now, unfortunately we can't stay in the colonies indefinitely. The radiation from the nuclear bombardment will have rendered our home planets uninhabitable. The question therefore now becomes – where will we go? If no other military vessels meet up with the Galactica at Ragnar then, Commander Adama will lead any ships he has away from Colonial space to find a new home for our people. I believe he will head out to look for the only other known inhabited planet we know of. The home of the thirteenth tribe of Kobol. I intend to lead this fleet, the last of our people, and meet up with the Galactica.

We will make our new home on Earth. So Say We All!"

A cheer rang out across the hanger bay as the crowd lifted their voices in unison to reply "So Say We All!"


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 4: The Ghost Yard.**

**Battlestar Orpheus – Pilot's Brief Room.**

"I've been given a directive from the Commander to ready our raptors for a preliminary recon mission", Alexi announced.

"Oh, where are going this time then?" Susan asked with a barely concealed smile. Susan was already looking forward to getting more flight time in, even if it was in a raptor rather than a viper.

"We're to scout ahead and check on the status of Cygnus Shipyard", Alexi answered, "That's where the Bright Star Line mothballed all their ships at the outbreak of the Cylon war. If we are lucky then there should be several ships that our engineers can reactivate and add to the fleet. I had a look in the old colonial history texts from that time. The shipyard was built to be able to act as a hub for excursions into neighbouring sectors so there should be a tylium storage facility there as well if it's still intact then the fleet will be able refuel before we start our search for the Battlestar GALACTICA ".

"When do we go?" Susan asked.

"In about two hours"

"The Anchorage is being stripped by the knuckle-draggers now so the engineering teams will transfer over to the Minotaur. The jump will be to a position that will be just within sensor range of the shipyard, then run the sensor sweep. If the area is clear of Cylons then send a burst transmission back to the Minotaur. She will jump directly to the outer edge of the shipyard and the engineering teams will board the best of the ships. The viper squadrons from Minotaur will form a CAP until the liners can be brought back here. I haven't assigned myself to this mission; I have too much to do at the moment, so you will be in charge out there. I've put 'Bear' as your ECO and you will be joined by 'Showboat' and 'Joker' in the second raptor. You'd better get your checks done and be ready to head out."

"Yes, Sir. Captain, Sir" Susan mock saluted the CAG.

"Just get out of here, will you" he said trying not to laugh, as he picked up his briefing notes from the podium at the front of the small room.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Starboard Flight Pod.**

The elevator that held the raptor slowly rose to the flight deck, red lights flashed in the bay, indicating the depressurizing taking place. As the elevator came to a stop, the lights went solid red, and the large hatch above them slid open. The raptor emerged on the flight deck, ready for launch.

Hera did a final check of the raptor's instrumentation as she glanced across the bay to the other elevator holding the second of the raptors assigned to this mission. After starting up the raptor's engines, she keyed her radio to speak to LSO.

"Recon raptor lead, systems nominal, awaiting clearance for launch"

"Roger that Hera. Recon Flight is go for launch. Good Hunting." Came the reply in quick order.

"Ok, let's go"

With the formalities out of the way, the two raptors gracefully rose from the flight deck and slowly flew toward the exit of the pod using their thrusters. Exiting the pod, the engines fired propelling them away from the giant ship.

"FTL co-ordinates received from Orpheus Actual. Transferring to the CNP. We are ready for jump" ECO Luke 'Bear' Zarek called out from his station in the rear compartment.

"Stand by for jump" Hera said as the raptor jumped away.

**Recon Raptor Flight – Edge of Cygnus System.**

With a flash of light, the raptor exited its FTL-jump. Bear quickly checked the navigational data streaming across his console.

"We are at the correct co-ordinates, Hera", Bear confirmed "Cygnus shipyard should be dead ahead".

"Yeah, I see it. Showboat, you and Joker stay here and scan for any cylon activity. Bear and I will head in and get a detailed scan of the yard. At the first sign of trouble, bug out – don't wait for us, Ok."

"Roger that Hera, I show no Cylons on Dradis at the moment though"

"Don't get complacent. They could show up at any time, just keep your eyes on the ball. We're heading in".

With a brief burst of the thrusters, Hera let the raptor drift in toward the facility. Cygnus Shipyard was built above a large asteroid. Large Tylium tanks and storage facilities littered the surface. The bulk of several large vessels slowly became visible in the raptors windscreen.

"I'm not picking up any life signs at all; no EM signatures detected, and doesn't look like there are any signs of battle damage to the surface structures. Beginning scans of the ships. I'm reading 5 Starshine class liners docked here. All ships appear to be structurally intact", Bear said as he run scan after scan.

EM signatures were the electromagnetic emissions that traditionally came from Cylon centurions.

The raptor started to drift through the shipyard and manoeuvre between the monolithic ghostly grey hulks, their size showed them to be about the same size as a Mercury class Battlestar, if not larger. Hera started reading the names of the ships as the passed them. _'Caprica Dream, Minoa, __Homeric____, __Aeschylus and the Gaia'. My god these were the most prestigious liners built before the war._

"Ok, send the burst to Minotaur. Let them know the coast is clear, Bear"

Within a matter of minutes a flash of light briefly lit up the raptors cockpit as the Battlestar Minotaur arrived in the system. The alert squadron of vipers shooting out of her launch tubes to form a CAP around the yard.

**Battlestar Minotaur – CIC**

Commander Paul Tasker was had been a bitter man when he first took command of the Minotaur, continuously passed over for promotion in favour of younger inexperienced officers, and eventually forced into retirement. His crew quickly learned that to keep the 'Old Man' happy, they had to almost anticipate his commands and act accordingly. Since the fall of the colonies however, his whole demeanour had changed. He had become a quiet but decisive man.

As Minotaur emerged from her FTL jump into the Cygnus system, he moved quickly, assigning tasks to his officers. Organising them into 5 groups, one to board each of the great grey ghosts in the yard ahead of them.

"Ok, Lieutenants. Each of you has your list of assigned personnel. Your teams will be shuttled to your designated vessels and begin activation of ships systems. Be advised, Mr Tigh has stated that these ships were never installed with networked systems, so that should make your jobs easier. Your priority is to get engines, life support and gravity up and running and to spool up your FTL's ready for the return trip. All other repair work will have to wait till we get back to Valhalla. We will rendezvous at the polar region of asteroid in 6 hours. At that time will we jump with however many ships are ready; we cannot afford to wait any longer than that. Dismissed."

**Starliner Caprica Dream – Engine Room**

"Frak!! Frak!! Frak!! What I wouldn't give for repair manuals and a wiring diagram!" Chief Benson vented, as he sat watching sparks, and smoke rising from the FTL drives circuit board, he attempted to repair. With a sigh he checked the tip of his soldering iron he was using and found it wasn't as hot as it should be. He adjusted the settings on the small generator that he was using to power both the soldering iron and the desk lamp he had taken from one of the passenger cabins. Sitting back down he waited for the iron to heat up, the sound of what he assumed were footsteps in the corridor caught his attention.

"Hello... who's there?" the chief called out. His voice echoing in the emptiness of the ship. Only to be returned by silence.

The chirping of an old corded communications handset on the walled beside him made the chief jump. _Frakking ship must be haunted_ he thought to himself, as he picked up the receiver.

"Engine Room" he said into the receiver.

Lieutenant Ford finally spoke up, "When the hell are you guys going to get power restored to the FTL?" The chief raised an eyebrow before responding, "Well sir, everything is hooked up. But in order to provide power to the drive we need to run the computers and we can't do that until we repair the circuit boards; don't forget this old ship hasn't even been powered up in over 40 years". He replaced the receiver and drawing in a deep breath the enlisted man forced to bite his tongue to avoid letting the rest of his thought be known.

He returned his attention to repairing the resoldering the troublesome circuit board. As he tried to calm his anger and focus on the task at hand. Replacing the board, he flipped the switch to the power coupling and watched as the counsel light up and began running a self diagnostic.

"Now we're getting somewhere." He shouted and with a satisfied grin he leaned back in his chair, going over the list he had compiled of the parts that would need replacing when they returned to Valhalla Anchorage.

**Battlestar Minotaur – CIC**

C.I.C. was cluttered with people singularly focused on their jobs.

"Sir we have achieved acceptable communications with our teams on the liners, all 5 are reporting that their engines are now on line and they will be activating main power momentarily." Lieutenant Hammond informed Commander Tasker.

Silently Commander Tasker nodded his acknowledgement to the OOD as the C.IC. broke out in to loud applause and cheers.

As the cheers began to die down, Tasker picked up the Comms handset hanging beside the plot table. "Comms, patch me through to the liners."

As the Comms officer acknowledged the order, the Commander brought the handset up in front of his face.

"Ghost Fleet, this is Minotaur Actual. Disengage from the station and proceed to polar orbit. Actual Out."

**Recon Raptor Flight – Edge of Cygnus System.**

As the ghostly ships in the yard began powering up and one by one started to exit the shipyard. Joker spotted something sticking out of a large airlock door down on the surface of the asteroid. Toggling his sensor suite for a better reading. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. There tucked in virtually out of site sat 4 fully laden Colonial refuelers.

"Showboat, I think we just hit the proverbial Jackpot"

"What do you mean?" Showboat asked as he twisted around to look over his shoulder at Joker.

"I mean that Hera and Bear missed something when they did their scans of this place. The Fleet needs fuel and I just found three Colonial Refuelers all with full tanks sitting down there."

"You better get on the horn and let Minotaur Actual know. They will need to send crews down to them."

Within 20 minutes, small crews had been sent to the abandoned ships and their running lights came to life. Another 5 minutes and with the liners already in formation above the northern pole, the refuelers began to move to join them. Commander Tasker sent an order for the two raptors to shadow the refuelers in case something was to go wrong, which it inevitably did.

Showboat acknowledged the order and proceeded to circle behind the refuelers as they took up formation with the liners. As he rounded the rear of the Centaris, his Dradis suddenly picked up a single ship heading in the direction of the shipyard. Without thinking he screamed over the radio. "Cylons!! It's a Frakking Cylon raider"

**Battlestar Minotaur – CIC**

In CIC Ensign Richards had been monitoring communications when he picked up Showboat's warning and alerted the Commander to the situation. The Commander immediately gave the order that he be patched in to all ships.

"All raptors and vipers begin combat landings, all other ships to jump to the staging area immediately."

The next few moments aboard the Minotaur, everyone was silent and holding his breath as the fleet of ships began to jump out of the Cygnus system. Finally only the Minotaur was left in orbit and they watched as the single Cylon raider made a sweeping pass over the shipyard before jumping away. It seemed as if the entire CIC staff let out their collective breaths as they realised that they had not been seen. They had managed to collect 5 liners and 3 tankers – a small miracle in these times. Now all they had to do was to rendezvous back at Valhalla.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 5 : Preparations and Exodus.**

**Battlestar Orpheus**

The CIC was buzzing with the usual activity from the reports repair operations and the distributions of people to the newest ships in the fleet, the 5 Starshine liners. The voice of Lieutenant (JG) Gary Roberts suddenly broke through the noise.

"Sir, I have twelve unidentified contacts just appeared on the DRADIS".

Immediately Admiral Kronus ordered "Set Condition One throughout the fleet and launch the alert fighters at once"

But before any vipers could be launched, Ensign Cain called out "Sir, were receiving Colonial Transponder Signals"

"Don't just accept Colonial ID's, verify the identities of those vessels, for all we know the Cylons could be using our own ships against us".

"Sir, the signals are authentic. Those ships are definitely Colonial! Transponder Codes confirm the Construction Yards _Concordia_ and _Aegis_, as well as the Colonial Marine Assaultstars _Adamant _and_ Aurora_ and the Strikestar _Medusa_. The group is escorting the Liners _Sirens Call, Leobris, Haven, Wayfinder_ and Prison Barge _Thermopolae._"

Kronus thought for a couple of seconds then turning around to Ensign Cain said "Open a channel to the _Concordia_; I want to speak to whoever is in charge over there."

Cain acknowledged the request, before speaking into his headset.

"Admiral, I have established communications with a Commander Garret, he seems eager to speak with you."

Picking up the phone, Kronus spoke into the mouthpiece, "Commander Garret, this is Admiral Andrew Kronus of the Militech Corporation. First let me say that I'm glad to see more of our people have survived. We are going to have a lot to discuss; but I need to know how in the hell you managed to make two Battlestar Construction Yards into mobile platforms – let alone FTL capable"

"Admiral, its rather simple really. Concordia was stationed out at the moon of Cimtar. She was constructing a new type of Battlestar – a pocket Battlestar if you will. When the attacks came, my chief engineer came to me with the idea of using the Battlestars FTL drive to jump both the ship and the yard as far out of the combat zone as we could. We jumped into the asteroid belt, next to the Aegis yard. After examining what parts we had between the two yards we were able to fit the new sub-light engines and FTL drives for the Battlestars onto the framework of the yards. It's a bit crude but works surprisingly well" Commander Garret informed the Admiral.

"Amazing, I never would have thought of doing that. I expect you and the commanders of those ships you have with you, to shuttle over to the Orpheus in an hour to discuss the current situation"

An hour later, Admiral Kronus was sitting in the wardroom with the commanders of the ships that had recently arrived in the nebula along with Commander Benedict of the Orpheus and Commander Tasker of the Minotaur.

"So, in conclusion ladies and gentlemen. What you have told me is that those ships only have skeleton crews on board, and we have one pocket Battlestar ready for launch but no-one to crew her and another that will be ready for launch in a matter of weeks. This may work out better than I could have hoped. The fleet of ships you see out there is nearly all that remains of our civilisation. But those ships are overcrowded. With the addition of your ships we will be able to relieve that pressure and with the number of Military personnel that we have rescued, we will have enough to ensure full crews for the Strikestar and Assaultstars."

Commander Benedict sat back in his chair and examined his notes on the sheet of paper in front of him. Two questions came to the front of his mind.

"Admiral, 2 pocket Battlestar will make an excellent addition to the fleet, but who will you put in command of them. Also with the number of military vessels we have now, I think it would be a good idea to arrange them into Battlestar groups for efficiency if operations wouldn't you agree."

Admiral Kronus spoke up "Mark, as I seem to have taken over your ship. I am going to give you command of the Battlestar Colossus. As she's a brand new ship, you shouldn't have the problems you had hear. Gather your crew from the survivors of the Fleet that we rescued. I don't want to split up the crews of the other ships just yet. As for the other Battlestar, well we have a few weeks to decide on her command officers."

**Battlestar Colossus**

The Colossus gracefully left the Construction Yard without any problem, and as she crossed the structures' outer parameter a loud cheer erupted throughout the ship.

The Helm officer spoke, "Colossus is free and clear to navigate, Commander."

Commander Benedict looked across the CIC towards the helm officers "Bring us around and take up position off of Orpheus's port side, Ensign".

"Aye, Sir" she replied deftly maneuvering the large ship into its assigned place within the fleet formation.

**Battlestar Orpheus.**

Admiral Kronus was relaxing in his quarters, this was the first time he had felt relaxed in the past few days. Taking a draw on his cigarillo, he was interrupted by the intercom beside his desk.

"CIC to Commanding Officer" came the voice of the Officer of the Deck Captain Pearce.

The Admiral sighed, stubbed out his cigarillo and lifted the handset from its cradle. "Go ahead".

"Sir, sorry to intrude but Doctor Cutter has requested your presence in life station asap."

"Tell him I'll be right there" he replied, replacing the handset and slipping his jacket back on, before making his way out of his cabin.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Life Station.**

Life station seemed pretty quiet, as Admiral Kronus stepped through the hatchway. He spotted his old friend Doctor Cutter standing in front of the window into the isolation ward. A serious looking frown on his face.

"David, what was so urgent that I had to give up what little relaxation time I can get these days?"

Doctor Cutter quickly spun around, "Sorry about that Andrew but I think you'll understand that what I have to say is definitely more important. As you know when we brought the survivors from the colonies back here we started getting everyone checked out on the Cassiopeia, radiation treatment and the like. Well, those six in there" he said pointing to the isolation ward "checked out OK for radiation, but since we have been here in the nebula, they have continued to get sicker and sicker."

Doctor Cutter indicated for Admiral Kronus to follow him and they proceeded to enter the Doctors office. Doctor Cutter closed the door, something he never normally did, before he continued.

"Andrew, you realise that the nebula we're sitting in contain a weaker form of the radiation cloud at Ragnar. That radiation is known to affect the silica pathways of Cylons, which was the reason the anchorage was built there. On a hunch, I ran some tests. The samples all came back as being synthetic. As horrifying as it sounds, those six people in there are Cylons. Unless you breakdown their DNA into its chemical constituents, there is no way to distinguish them from humans."

This was definitely not information that should get out to the general populace Admiral Kronus thought. "David, if we leave the nebula, will they recover?"

"I have no way of knowing for sure, but the way they are right now, four of them won't last another 24 hours. The other two haven't been affected so much. They were onboard the Minotaur, so they haven't been exposed to the same level yet. One is the XO and the other is one of the viper pilots."

Making his decision, Admiral Kronus rose from his seat and picked up the handset from the wall. "Orpheus Actual to CIC, Send a marine detachment to life station". He replaced the receiver and looked over to the Doctor. "David, when the marines get here, I want that ward under 24hour guard. Do not let them out of there. This information is to be kept classified. Understood."

"Yeah"

**Battlestar Orpheus - Pilots Ready Room**

The ready room was fairly empty when Colonel Omega entered, Showboat was over to one side pouring himself a drink from a dispenser before walking across the room the the card game that some of the other viper jocks were involved with. After sitting himself down in one of the two empty chairs he looks up noticing the colonel just coming into the room.

"Care to join us, Colonel" he politely asks his superior officer.

"Sure, I'll sit in for a hand or two" He replied with a smile.

Hera dealt out the cards, picking hers up, she stared at them before throwing a couple of cubits into the centre of the table.

"So... the CAG will be back soon with the new nuggets. When you give them their call signs go easy on them Ok Hera" the colonel said before adding his cubits to the growing pile.

"What would be the fun in that, Sir?" Joker responded.

"Alright, tell me how you all got your call signs then." Omega challenged the pilots.

"None of your business, Sir" Susan 'Hera' Meredith spit back. She never liked revisiting the time she got her call sign back at the academy.

"Well, mine's easy. My godfather gave mine to me because I would always sneak out of the Academy grounds to visit those entertainment barges in the harbour. You know the ones with the dancing girls and the gambling tables." Showboat said before placing his cards on the table "I'm out".

"Whos your godfather then Showboat?" Omega asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Commander Garris Cain. I sure hope he survived."

Joker, Bear and Star added their stories as one by one they all dropped out of the game. Leaving just the Colonel and Hera.

"How's your sister Showboat?" Hera asked.

"I didn't know you had a sister" Omega commented.

"She'll probably be fine. She's a pilot on the Pegasus – thanks to Admiral Cain's dislike of her brother, Cain gave her the same call sign as me. At least Jason got out from under her thumb".

"Looks like I'm going to bring this lovely little game to a close and make myself a little richer, 'full colours'. Thank-you everyone."

"Anyone ever tell you, you're a card shark Hera" the Colonel laughed, they all knew how good Hera was.

**Battlestar Orpheus - CIC**

"Admiral on the deck" someone called out as Kronus came through the hatch into the CIC. "As you were" he called out.

"Captain, inform the other ships to suspend the personnel transfers, spin up the FTL's and have all ships recall their CAP's. Our position may have been compromised. Set jump co-ordinates for Ragnar Anchorage. We have to leave now."

The CIC flourished with activity Captain Pearce looked up from one of his monitors. "Admiral the cap have all landed, all vipers are back on board."

"Start the jump prep."

"Ensign Cain, tell the fleet to start jump prep, get me Colossus Actual."

"Orpheus, this is Colossus actual."

"Commander, our position here has been compromised, we're jumping to Ragnar to start the search for Galactica. How's it coming over there?"

On Colossus Commander Benedict looked up at his new XO Samuel Tigh and nodded before answering the Admiral.

"Were getting there Admiral. It's just a matter of getting the munitions stowed and receiving the new vipers"

"I want you to jump first to protect the civilians, we'll wait until everyone else is away."

"Understood, Sir. See you on the other side."

One by one the ships all jumped away from the Valhalla nebula. Just as the Orpheus activated her FTL drives, three Cylon baseships materialised inside the area where the fleet had been, and launched missiles at the abandoned stations. Destroying it in mere seconds.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 6 : The Search Begins.**

**Battlestar Orpheus - CIC**

In orbit of an olive-green coloured gas giant, with its massive storm swirling within the planets upper atmosphere, the ship emerged from its FTL jump. Admiral Kronus looked around at the various monitors in the CIC. "Report" he called out.

Captain Pearce quickly ran from the FTL computer to the console operated by the Navigation officer. He studied the readouts for a few seconds before straightening himself but up. "We are now in synchronous orbit directly above the Ragnar Anchorage." He just as quickly checked with Ensign Cain "All ships are present and accounted for, Sir".

Cheering could be heard all over the ships. Admiral Kronus smiled to himself_. Incredible_. He glanced across to the hatch as Colonel Omega made his way across to the plot table. "Those old ships have still got some life in them then."

Omega laughed briefly "Either that or our engineering staff truly are miracle workers".

Laughing himself Admiral Kronus called out "Captain Pearce – secure the FTL drive and bring the sub-lights back online. Have all Battlestars launch a CAP. Although the Dradis is clear at the moment, those toasters could show up at anytime." Turning back towards his executive officer he said "Colonel Omega, have a raptor prepped. I want them to go right down into the eye of the storm to the station and look for any sign of the Galactica."

"Aye, Sir."

**Raptor 212 – At Ragnar**

The raptor was gliding slowly down through the immense dark form that was the atmospheric storm. The high winds buffeting the small craft made it difficult to control their descent, lightning flashing around and occasionally hitting the hull.

"Approaching turn three, prepare for more chop" Bear called out to his ECO.

They were passing through the outer atmosphere into the ionosphere. The vibrations from the high winds threatening to blow the ship off course.

"Be careful Bear, there's a lot of wreckage out there." Joker said.

"Can you identify the wreckage, anything big enough to be a battlestar?"

Joker studied his sensor readout, "No, there are a few vipers. Looks like the old mark II's. But most of what I'm reading is Cylon raiders."

"Well, the Mark II's probable came from the museum on Galactica. I remember that her Viper squadrons were being reassigned straight after the decommissioning ceremony. Last time I saw Starbuck, she told me that the viper squadrons were ordered to fly to Caprica once the ceremony concluded."

As the raptor emerged from the turbulent environment of the storm, the wheel-like structure of the Ragnar station came into view. Bear switched on the spotlights attached to the ship as they started to fly around the periphery of the station to get a better look.

"I'm not picking up any life signs from the station, but there are indications that someone has been here recently. Maybe we should dock and find out if they left some clue as to where they went." Joker said.

"Negative. If Galactica was here, then she would have cleared out any armament on the station. Our best bet is to look for a message buoy. Anything on Dradis?"

"Hang on. This muck isn't easy to see through you know. Wait a minute. I've got something. Come around two-two-seven karom oh-one-five."

"Got it. Let's bring it onboard then get back to the Orpheus" Bear replied as he spotted the meter long titanium cylinder floating in the planet's atmosphere not far from their present position.

**Battlestar Orpheus - CIC**

The comm signal from the raptor was being relayed over the speakers of the CIC. Admiral Kronus had to listen carefully as the static from the storms interference was making it difficult to hear.

"I didn't get an accurate count, but it looks like the Galactica fought a battle with the Cylons in the upper atmosphere, loosing several of her mark II's in the process. There was quite a lot of wreckage from destroyed raiders. My guess would be they were outnumbered by about 10 to 1, but there is no indication that the Galactica was destroyed. We found evidence that they were protecting a number of civilian vessels as well."

"Did you locate a message buoy at all, lieutenant?" Kronus asked the raptor pilot.

"Yes, sir. We have it aboard"

"Good. Lieutenant, bring it directly to CIC when you land. Orpheus Actual out."

**Battlestar Orpheus – Wardroom**

The senior staff was all sitting at the tables in the room as Lieutenant Luke Zarek entered the room carrying the colonial message buoy they had picked up in the eye of the storm. He walked over to the table and placed the metal cylinder in front of Admiral Kronus. Saluting before setting back.

The Admiral slowly stood up and grasping the container, unscrewed the cap and removed the sheet of paper inside. He quickly scanned the document he was holding before addressing those present in the room.

"Well, it looks like I was right. The Galactica was here to re-arm and was joined by 60 civilian ships – no military. After stowing all the arms they could get from the station, they have jumped out of the system, taking the civilians with them. Bill's going to try to lead them to Earth. There's a side note here that say that the Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin, was the only member of the Government to survive and under the Articles of Colonization has been sworn in as President.

Gentlemen, we now have a set of co-ordinates and a general heading that Galactica's taking. I think we should set out immediately"

Colonel Omega looked up at the Admiral "So, where are we headed, Admiral."

"The Prolmar sector."

Omega was shocked. "That's way past the Red Line. We'll have to do the jump calculations for over half the ships in the fleet, for a distance that great. It's a great risk, what with the margin of error..."

"I know. We'll jump as soon as we have the calculations distributed".

**Battlestar Orpheus – Life Station.**

Doctor Cutter strode across the room towards the isolation ward. The Marines standing guard at the door saluted as he approached. "As you were, soldiers" he said, as one of them opened the door for the Doctor.

He shifted his eyes across the room looking briefly at his six patients, before settling on the figure of Colonel Henry Cavil, who was sitting up in the bed.

"Doctor, what the hell is going on?" he asked. The sweat running off his brow, eyes red-rimmed and glassy.

Doctor Cutter studied the man for a few seconds before deciding exactly how much to say.

"You and the other five people in this room are all suffering from the same symptoms – radiation poisoning."

"How? I never even went down on the surface of the colonies after the attacks."

"It's not the same kind of radiation. This kind is only found in certain gaseous formations, nebula and planets. This radiation has an effect on silica circuitry..." the Doctor let that last comment sink in.

"Cylon. But I'm not a Cylon."

The Doctor slowly walked towards the door, knocking on it to get the guards attention. The door opened and Doctor Cutter turned around to face Colonel Cavil, "Aren't you? He asked pointing towards the bed next to the Colonel before exiting the room. The door closing quietly behind him.

Colonel Cavil looked across at the bed next to his. Shock clearly visible on his face as he saw his own form staring back at him.

**Battlestar Orpheus - CIC**

The relative calm of the last few hours was broken by the chirp of the Dradis display. "Sir, Inbound Dradis contacts, verified as cylon raiders. Estimate four minutes till they are in range"

Admiral Kronus sighed as he picked up the handset. "Action Stations! Action Stations! Set Condition One throughout the ship!"

"How the hell did they find us?" Colonel Omega asked. The frustration evident in his voice.

"It doesn't really matter how they found us, but I could hazard a guess that it has something to do with our 'Guests' down in Life Station. Bring the weapons grid to full power and stand by enemy suppression barrage, Karl." Admiral Kronus turned around and walked over to the communications console.

"Ensign, disperse to all ship using laser transmission only. Tell them to jump as soon as they can."

The Cylon raiders were rapidly approaching the fleet, as the Colossus made its FTL jump. "Enemy suppression fire – all batteries execute!" Admiral Kronus ordered.

Colonel Omega picked up the handset and repeated the order "All batteries commence fire".

Streams of bullets shot out of the cannons lining the flanks of the Battlestars, ripping the incoming raiders to pieces. But still more were managing to evade the rain of armour piercing rounds.

"Launch all Vipers" the Admiral finally ordered.

As soon as the order was relayed to the launch bays, multiple vipers sped out of the launch tubes of the seven Battlestars, forming a loose formation as they headed out to engage the enemy.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Blue Squadron**

The squadron formed up quickly as they exited the launch tubes. Captain Alexi "Zeus" Dualla leading the way as they flew towards the hordes of Cylon raiders. Toggling a switch on his control panel, he started issuing his orders.

"This is the CAG, let's use a broken formation and not give them a chance to use their targeting computers. Concentrate on the raiders, leave the Basestar's to the Battlestars. And for frak's sake, stay out of the firing solution of the Battlestars."

As he glanced back towards the fleet, he could make out the brief flashes of the FTL drives as the various civilian ships started to jump away from the combat zone. Turning his attention back towards the battle, it looked like complete chaos to the untrained eye with vipers spinning, twisting, dodging and firing into the Cylon ranks. This was flying by the seat of the pants, something that the raiders were unable to do with their computer logic, but they clearly had the numerical superiority.

Vipers and raiders were exploding all around him as the battle ensued. With no more chance to think, he sighted in on a raider making a strafing run on one of the vipers and fired. A brilliant explosion lit up the sky as he threw the viper into a steep turn finding another raider to pursue. A Cylon missile streaked passed his canopy and he cursed as he watched it collide with another viper.

Another raider entered his sights. Concentrating all his attention on homing in on his target, he failed to notice another missile heading his way. As his target exploded under the onslaught of bullet Alexi threw at it, the missile hit his starboard wing shearing it clean off. Cursing, he managed to regain control of the craft, bringing it out of its spin and after applying the thrusters, went off to continue to fight.

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

"I've had enough of this!" Admiral Kronus commented as he picked himself up off the floor beside the plot table, a hand pressing a handkerchief to his temple where he had cut his head.

"Incoming Ordnance!" Captain Pearce shouted, before the ship shook from the force of the missile impacted against the hull.

"Let's see how they like being trapped between us. Ensign Cain, Signal the Minotaur and Vigilant to swing around and come in on the Cylons port side, Titan and Atlantis to swing around behind the Basestar's, Morpheus and Theseus to take the starboard side. We'll hit them head on. Tell them to target the FTL drives first."

The mammoth Battlestars started moving into position. The Cylons concentrating their fire on one Battlestar at a time and before they realised what was happening they were encircled by the seven Battlestars. Rail-guns firing round after round into the trapped Basestar's, ripping away sections of hull plating.

"Weapons, Concentrate your fire on the central core" Admiral Kronus commanded.

Within seconds a round had penetrated the central core of the nearest Baseship, fires clearly visible from within. Another rail-gun round found its mark entering through the hole left by the previous hit, impacting the tylium storage tanks and blowing apart the ship. The Cylon Baseships had been forced so close together that the explosion set off a chain reaction with wreckage of one ship colliding with and destroying another. The brightness of the resulting explosion blinding those looking in that direction.

By the time the viper pilots were able to look at the area again, all that was left was a few raiders who continued to fight.

"Colonel, it looks like we've won this round. Bring our birds home and let's rejoin the fleet" the Admiral said, his voice barely heard over the cheering of the CIC staff.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 7: Resupply**

**Cylon Basestar – Orbit of Caprica.**

In the control centre on board the command base star orbiting over the planet Caprica sat a seductive looking, statuesque blond woman, like her counterparts, her body was designed to mimic the human body, even at the cellular level, to enable her to interact with the humans on Caprica. She sat reading the reports on the current situation. It had been a month since the Cylons had returned to the Colonies but their attack on the Colonies had not gone completely to plan.

Of the one hundred and twenty-two Battlestars in service with the Colonial Fleet, the Cylons had only been able to confirm that one hundred and fifteen had destroyed. Six Battlestars so far remained unaccounted for and this was unacceptable to the Cylons. One Battlestar, The Galactica, old though she may have been, had managed to fight off the continued attacks the Cylons had enacted upon it and escaped into deep space taking with it a fleet of about sixty civilian ships. There was a concerted effort to seek out and destroy them under way, but that was tying up a lot of base ships. The remaining six unaccounted for Battlestars which consisted of the _Pegasus, Hyperion, Prometheus, Ithaca_ and the _Kobol_, had not been seen since the opening attacks on the twelve colonies. The Number Five charged for accounted for all the ships in the colonial fleet had presumed that these six ships had been destroyed along with the task forces that they had been a part of but in checking the remains floating around the Cyrannus system, no wreckage from those Battlestars had been found. They had been unable to find any conclusive proof of their destruction.

The problem though, was that there were a handful of unidentified warships that had so far caused the loss of several of the Cylons Baseships. One of the Number Eight's had theorized that these were colonial fleet survivors, not on the commissioned list. As a result of this hypothesis, she had gone back through the computer databases they had taken from the computers at Picon Fleet Headquarters before the attack in order to check this out, but so far they had been unable to find any possible names for warships that had so far destroyed five Basestar's before jumping out of the system.

"We must find out the identities of these elements of the Colonial Fleet and ensure their destruction; we cannot allow any humans to escape." Number six said to the other Cylons present in the control centre.

"And how do you propose that we achieve that goal, six? Even if we divided up the Basestar's to search the surrounding sectors, they are still a formidable force. They won't be as easy to dispose of as the main Fleet; we have tried to access their systems through the CNP, but were unsuccessful"

"We still have Cylon agents, unaccounted for that may be on one of those ships. Once we have found these unknown forces, we can contact any of our people within the fleet and then they can be easily dealt with."

"That still ties up a lot of base ships which we could use to better effect in tracking down the GALACTICA."

"I agree with six." The Cylon known as Doral said.

"Then it's agreed" six replied.

**Battlestar Orpheus**

Admiral Kronus sat at his desk, perusing over the star charts he had removed from the CIC. The fleet was still desperately overcrowded and the fuel in the tankers had already been used to fill the tanks on the ships of the fleet. His eyes finally rested on a star system not too far from their present position. A system with a planet he remembered from the Cylon war 'Carillon'.

Carillon had been discovered before the war, to be rich in tylium ore and the colonies had been quick to set up an outpost there. At the outset of hostilities, the Cylons had been extremely active in the area and the decision had been made to abandon the outpost. He had been part of the Battlestar Group sent to extract the personnel on the planet. They had been in such a rush that several ships had been left behind in the orbital docks above Carillon. Hopefully they would still be there. His decision made, he started collecting up the charts and made his way down the corridor to the CIC.

"Admiral on Deck" someone calls out as Kronus walks through the hatchway.

"Carry on." he replies almost absent-mindedly.

Kronus crosses the room to where Captain Dualla is talking to Colonel Omega. "Gentlemen, we are going to have to acquire tylium supplies before we continue on our journey and I believe I have a solution to that particular problem".

Colonel Omega snaps his head around to look at his commanding officer. "Sir, where are we going to get tylium this far past the Red Line, we cannot afford the time it would take to allow the mining and refinery ships to stop and carry out such a task with the Cylons so close behind us."

"Colonel, you're probably too young to remember - but before the war, a remote facility was constructed on the planet Carillon to mine and refine the ore to produce tylium. We had to abandon the facility early on in the war, but the infrastructure was left in place. Carillon was the largest tylium mining facility in this part of the galaxy. Captain, I want you to send a raptor to the planet to scout for any Cylon presence before we take the fleet in to the area. There may even be some old ships there that we can make use of. "

"I'll get right on it Admiral" captain Dualla said before saluting and departing the CIC and making his way to the flight deck.

"Admiral, if there are any ships there, they will probably need a serious overhaul. Our engineering crews are already working around the clock on the five liners we appropriated from the yards at Cygnus."

"Karl, don't forget that we now have the two construction yards that we can make use of as well"

"Sorry, Sir" Omega replied feeling a little chastised at the way Kronus spoke to him.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Starboard Hanger Deck**

Hera did a final check of the raptor's instrumentation as the elevator that held the raptor slowly rose to the flight deck, the familiar red lights flashing in the bay as it was the depressurizing. The elevator came to a stop and the lights turned to a solid red as the large hatch cover above them slid open and they emerged on the flight deck, ready for launch She keyed her radio to speak to LSO, whilst starting up the raptor's engines,

"Recon raptor one, systems nominal, awaiting clearance for launch"

"Roger that Hera. Recon One is go for launch. Good Hunting." Came the reply in quick order.

"Ok, let's go"

With the formalities out of the way, Hera's raptor rose gracefully from the flight deck and slowly flew toward the exit of the pod using their thrusters. Exiting the pod, the engines fired propelling them away from the giant ship.

"We've received the FTL co-ordinates and I'm inputting them into the CNP now. You jump whenever you're ready Hera." Bear announced.

"Stand by for jump" Hera said as the raptor jumped away.

A bright flash of light lit up space as the raptor exited its FTL-jump."Dradis shows clear Hera. I'm going to focus the sensors on the orbital habitat." Bear said as he started flicking switches on the ECO console.

Hera took the raptor in towards the spindly looking structure that hung in orbit over the planet. The facility had been designed purely as a transfer terminus for the refined tylium ore that had been mined on Carillon, so the large Tylium tanks and storage facilities were clearly visible along the length of the kilometre long station. The docking bays that ran along the length of the structure contained several obviously old ships in remarkably good condition.

"I'm not picking up any power readings from either the station or the ships. Looks like someone switched everything off before they left." Bear said as they continued their survey.

The raptor continued to move across the station towards the large storage tanks that were used to hold the tylium. "Is there anything left in the tanks, Bear?" Hera asked her ECO.

"Yeah, my scans indicate that nearly all the tanks are full, ships show as empty though. Let's move on to the planet's surface."

Using the thrusters, the raptor began to manoeuvre across the top of the station and towards the planet._ "_Dear Lords of Kobol!_" _Bears exclaimed when the initial results of the scan appeared on his display. _"_Now I understand why they had so many ships to retrieve the tylium ore at the station. This must be the largest concentration of tylium in the galaxy, the reading are off the scale. I wonder why the Cylons haven't discovered this place yet?"

Hera turned her head back to look at her ECO "Don't tempt the fates, Bear. Now, what does the mine itself look like?"

Bear looked back down at his terminal, evaluating the incoming data as they passed over the mine facility. "The mine entrance shows clear, and there are several storage tanks full of tylium next to the refinery. We may not even have to send the miners down to the surface."

"Ok, let's head on back to the fleet and let them know the good news".

Within a matter of minutes, they disappeared in a brilliant flash of light as they jumped but to the fleet.

**Battlestar Orpheus - Wardroom**

Admiral Kronus and the commanders of the Battlestars had gathered in the wardroom of the Orpheus to review the data brought back by Hera's recon flight to the planet Carillon. The first thing they looked at were the visuals of the ships docked at the orbital hub, the appeared to be about the same size as a Mercury class Battlestar, if not a little larger.

Commander Simeon Lucius (commanding officer of the Theseus and the youngest of the ships commanders) looked up from the visuals on the table in front of him. Glancing around the conference table at his compatriots before speaking.

"Admiral, pardon my ignorance but what type of ships are these, I've never seen anything along these lines before."

Admiral Kronus let a fatherly smile appear on his face as looked at Commander Lucius. "Son, I would not have expected any of those present to have seen these types of ships before. They are a Basillus Class Supertanker. Only 8 were built and those were specifically to operate out of this facility. They were designed to carry enough tylium to replenish an entire Battlestar Group from one load-out. When war broke out, it was decide to leave the ships here so that the Cylons would not realise the significance of this planet. By the time the armistice was signed, the government decided that it was not cost effective to re-start the operations here."

"Sir, we already have three tankers, which once they are refilled will last the fleet a couple of years. Do you think we could convert these ships to carry passengers?" Commander Fredericks asked.

The Admiral smiled to himself. "My plan is to jump the fleet into the orbit of Carillon, use the tankers and the supplies on the orbital hub to replenish the tanks on all the ships and then refill the tankers from the storage tanks on the surface. The eight Basillus tankers will be converted, one at a time, to enable us to relocate the civilian populace from the military ships and those ships that are currently overcrowded. When these ships are put into use, we should have plenty of space to give everyone their own quarters."

"Admiral, if I may? Whilst we are in orbit, I would like to instigate the transfer of replenishment vipers to the fleet and the installation of a viper squadron on the Colossus. With all the excitement lately, Colossus is currently without an air wing." Commander Benedict injected from his place at the far end of the table.

"An excellent idea, Commander. Does anyone have anything else to add. Then the fleet will jump into the system in 1 hour, operations will commence as soon as we achieve orbit."

**Constructstar Ganymede – In orbit above Carillon**

The Constructstar Ganymede, looked almost like a Mercury Class Battlestar. The interior of the ship was vastly different though. Two thirds of her mass consisted of manufacturing facilities to enable it to build and replenish the viper and raptor capabilites of a Battlestar Group. Since the flight from the Valhalla Nebula, the productions crews had been working round the clock to build enough vipers to replenish the losses sustained by the fleet, as well as to produce enough new vipers to outfit the newest addition to the roll call of Battlestars - the Colossus.

Captain William 'Jolly' Rogers, the new CAG of the Battlestar Colossus, strolled across the immense expanse of the delivery deck of Ganymede. The pilots of the newly formed Golden Spike squadron trailing behind him. Spotting a deck hand over to one side of the bay, he headed over in her direction.

"Excuse me, Petty Officer. Where can I find Chief Murner?" he asked the startled Petty Officer.

Regaining her composure, she pointed to an area at the far end of the bay "He should be in machine shop 7 sir."

"Thank-you, Petty Officer" Rogers replied with a smile, before making his way to the area that she had indicated.

As the collection of pilots were walking across the deck, Deck Crew Chief Murner exited the machine shop, wiping his hands on an already grease covered rag.

"Hey chief, are the birds ready to fly. " Rogers called out making the Chief jump.

"Jolly! Good to see you again. What are you doing here, I thought you were stationed aboard the Columbia?"

"I was, she was destroyed in the attack on Picon. My viper lost power in the attack, but I managed to use the inertia I had to make it into the wreckage of one of the Battlestars. I was eventually picked up by the Firestar Hestia. Only two members of my squadron survived. Now I'm the CAG on the Colossus. I've brought my pilots over to collect the vipers for our new squadron. I hope you have them ready for us - I don't want to report to my new commander, that he can't have ships vipers yet!! "

The Chief smiled back.

"Don't worry Captain; the vipers are ready to go. If your pilots want to mount up, I'll wait for you to give the word in the control booth and then I will de-pressurise the bay and open the doors. You can then fly them across to your ship. It'll be good to have the floor space again."

"Thanks Chief, I'll have to catch up with later when I'm not so busy" Rogers responded, as he walked across to a mark VII that he had already eyed up for himself.

When he saw that all the pilots were in their vipers, he keyed up his mic "Ok people, lets get these birds back home in one piece. Anyone who so much as puts a scratch on one of these babies, on a simple transfer flight, will be cleaning the pilots head with their toothbrush for the next week. Understood".

She once again switched channels

"Ganymede Control, this is Golden Spike Leader. Requesting permission to depart "

"Golden Spike Leader, this is Ganymede Control….. You are cleared to depart. Safe flying "

" Rodger that " Jolly said.

Moments later the first of the new vipers craft departed the Ganymede, before forming up for the flight over to the Battlestar Colossus.


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 8: Act of Sabotage?**

**Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Quarters.**

The old wooden desk was covered in paperwork as Admiral Kronus, Commander Benedict, Commander Fredericks and Major Haines discussed the re-organisation of the fleet as the resupply operation continued uninterrupted. With eight more ships that would need to be converted from their original purpose to something more useful, the logistics were a nightmare to arrange. Already, half the ships in the fleet had been refuelled and the first of the tankers was being escorted to the surface to take on more tylium and the first deliveries of vipers were being made.

"Admiral, we have one construction yard available right now so we can use a couple of shuttles to tow one of those Super tankers into the yard and have the yard crew start on the conversion straight away. The Commander of the Aegis reports that the pocket Battlestar in the yard is nearly complete, she can be launched and her completion can be carried out as we go. That then frees up another yard. As for the other ships, we'll just have to get them space ready for now and convert them on the move." Commander Fredericks insisted.

"Very well Commander, we'll go with that plan." Admiral Kronus conceded.

The Admiral slowly got up from his chair and walked across the room to the shelf beside the door and took down a bottle and four glasses. Pouring the amber coloured liquid into the glasses he called back over his shoulder "There are two other matters that I wish to cover today. The first being to re-establish our forces into a coherent military force and the other is our 'guests' down in life station." He picked up the glasses and hand one to each of the men in the room.

"Admiral, I'm not sure what you mean about our forces" Major Haines admitted.

"Major, currently there are two distinct divisions in the fleet militarily. We have the survivors from the Colonial Fleet, such as your Marines and we have the ex-fleet personnel that I employed at Militech. I want to integrate the personnel and assign the ships into Battlestar Groups to give our people the security that the Colonial Fleet has not been completely destroyed. It will certainly increase moral."

"I understand Admiral but..."

A loud explosion cut Major Haines off midsentence and knocking Admiral Kronus off his feet.

"Admiral Kronus please CIC, Admiral Kronus to CIC" came over the ships public address system.

Kronus quickly stood up and stalked across the room to the handset beside his desk.

"This is the Admiral. What's the situation up there?" he asked.

"Sir, we've had an explosion in the auxiliary control room. DC parties report that the room is completely destroyed. Colonel Omega has taken control of the DC teams directly and requests that you meet him on site." Captain Pearce answered. The shock evident in his voice.

Kronus replaced the handset and turned to the Senior Officers in his office "Gentlemen, we'll continue this discussion later."

**Battlestar Orpheus – Corridor Outside Auxiliary Control.**

The damage control teams had just finished extinguishing the flames and were in the process of rolling up their hoses when Admiral Kronus arrived at the location of the explosion. He looked inside the compartment to assess the damage.

Control panels that once stood proudly in their designated position, were now molten slags of metal on the floor. The walls were clearly scorched and buckled, the paint blistering off the metal surfaces. The glass in the window to the connecting corridor had been blown out by the force of the blast and now lay in a million shattered pieces on the floor.

Colonel Omega was walking around the remains of the room, occasionally stopping to pick up a piece of the debris, examining it before throwing it back amongst the mess accumulated on the deck. Shaking his head, he made his way over towards the hatchway.

"It's a real mess Admiral. The whole place is going to have to be gutted and replaced."

"Any clues as to what happened?" Kronus asked.

Colonel Omega was thoughtful for a moment, before giving a subtle nod of his hid in the direction of the adjoining compartment. The two men entered the room and closed the hatch, so as not to be overheard.

"The explosion was caused by plastic explosives. I found the remains of a G4 detonator near the auxiliary helm controls. Someone clearly wanted to disable the ship. The security cameras in the area have all been disabled as well. Whoever it was, knew what they were doing. Admiral, we have a saboteur on board."

Admiral Kronus let out a sigh, "that probably means we have at least one more cylon in the fleet. We're going to have to be very careful how we handle this. For the moment, have Marines stationed at all critical areas of the ship and advise the other ships to do the same. As for the civilian's, contact Major Haines and have him send some personnel to the civilian ships undercover, we do not want to start any riots."

"What do mean more Cylons? How could one of those chrome toasters hide aboard a Battlestar?"

"Karl, the Cylons have evolved. They now have the ability to appear human. Doctor Cutter has six of them in life station at the moment; so far we have no way of knowing how many different models they have."

**Carillon Orbital Hub – Slipway Three.**

Master Chief Petty Officer William Lampkin was standing beside the large door for the airlock connecting the Orbital Hub to the Supertanker, moored outside. His usual coveralls were smothered with grease stains and the stubble on his face indicating that he hadn't shaved in at least a day.

"Chief Lampkin, how are things coming along?" Commander Fredericks asked.

William Lampkin was the senior enlisted man on the Battlestar Minotaur and had been set the task of reactivating the Supertankers the fleet had found. "Well, so far Commander, we have managed to get the sublights on two of these buckets going and have moved the first one into Concordia for her refit. You know, I don't think these ships have been used much going on the condition we have found them in, so conversion should be relatively easy."

"How soon do you think it will be before the other ships can be moved?"

The Chief pulled a half smoked cigar out of the breast pocket of his coveralls, chomped down on it "Well if they are all in the same condition as the first two" he paused as he lit the cigar, "I reckon it should only be a couple more hours. But we will need personnel to crew them before they can be moved."

"Well, that's good news; I have Captain Thomas going round the civilian ships rounding up anyone who has any experience flying ships so we should be able to find you some crews soon. Fredericks replied as he screwed up his nose.

"What the matter, sir?" Chief Lampkin asked with a smile. "Don't like anyone smoking?"

"It's not that Chief. I was just wondering which smells worse - all that grease and lube on your coveralls or that damned cigar."

Chief Lampkin roared with laughter at that comment before adding "In that case, I'll be back once I've had a chance to wash up."

"Please do Chief." Fredericks said as the chief made his way down the corridor to the small washroom he had found when he first walked around the station.

**Cloud 7 – Patriots Bar**

Captain Paul Thomas sat at the bar on the Recreation Ship, nursing a glass of ambrosia. The last four hours had been spent shuttling between ships trying to find enough people to crew the new additions to the growing fleet outside the dome where he now sat. Now that his task had been completed and he was off duty, Captain Thomas had decided to stop off at the bar to relax for a couple of hours before heading home to the Minotaur.

A tall, seductive, blond entered the bar and slowly made her way across the room to the stool beside Captain Thomas. He looked up at the vision of beauty standing beside him, slowly taking in her red flowing, flesh-baring dress which was used to great effect to emphasize her trim figure.

"You look in need of some company, Captain" she addressed him sensuously.

Captain Thomas gestured for her to take a seat on the stool next to him.

The blond beauty slipped onto the seat, crossing her legs seductively. "What has you thinking so hard?"

"I was just wondering how the gods could have allowed something like all this? " he replied.

Signalling the bartender over, she ordered a drink. Taking a small sip from the glass he placed in from of her, she turned her attention back towards her companion and gave him an ambiguous smile.

"Maybe, the Gods have their own plans for humanity. Maybe, they have found another race to be more worthy"


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 9: Loose Ends**

**Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Quarters.**

"Things are beginning to look up. Thanks to the stops at the Cygnus shipyard and here at Carillon, we now have the ships we need to transport the population on this journey. But the people need more stability; they need to feel that their needs are being tended to. Having a military force in control will only breed contempt in the long run" Kronus said to Colonel Omega when they were alone in his quarters.

"They are used to the confidence they had in the government" Omega replied.

Admiral Kronus thought about that for a minute. "There needs to be a civilian authority of some sort. With Roslin already named as President, Adama will have what constitutes as the Colonial Government with him. We need to have something along those lines, but more in keeping with the nature of the situation we find ourselves in. Have someone check to see if we have any government people in the fleet, and ask them to come up with a proposal. Then we'll schedule some elections for the various posts."

"We're still in the process of completing a census, but once that is done it will let us know who the eligible voters are. We'll also have to come up with a way to register their votes."

**Cruise Liner City of Eden – Conference Room A**

Eileen Fields sat at the table in the conference room scrutinizing the other people who had been gathered together. All of those present had been government officials before the Cylon attacks, now they had been thrust together to help form a new civilian authority.

"One thing is certain; we cannot live under martial law for any extended period of time. Admiral Kronus has achieved a great deal just rescuing the people and protecting us. His responsibility should be the military and its continued protection of the fleet. If our way of life is to survive, we need to form a new government" she stated.

Warren Caso, a tall bald man in his early fifties interjected his opinion. "Your right Eileen. The problem lies in what form the new government takes. Adar may have been killed but the rules of succession have been followed. We are all aware that Laura Roslin was sworn in as the new President of the Colonies. Until we meet up with Galactica, we will have to form an administrative body that will not conflict with the rightful government."

The voice of a young, blond haired man at the far end of the table, who had thus far remained quiet, called out "Excuse me. My name is Joseph Leman. I used to be a Presidential Aide. When I attended Caprica University, I studied the history of our political system. Before the Articles of Colonisation were signed, each Colony had its own planetary government. The head of the government was called the Governor General and the legislative body was known as the Senate. We could adjust that arrangement so that each Colony was represented in the Senate by one representative, just like the Quorum".

The former Under Secretary of Justice spoke up. "I like that proposal. Especially in light of the way the Admirals staff is distributing the populace so that the people on each ship are from the same colony."

"The trouble is going to be holding elections. With the people spread out over so many ships, it's going to be difficult to organise staffing for the polling stations" Warren added.

"Well we don't have enough Marshall's in the fleet to man the polling stations, but that is something we could discuss with the Admiral. Maybe he will let us use the Marines for that role" Joseph said.

Eileen glanced around the table. Everyone seemed to be smiling as the proposal came together. "Ok. If we're all in agreement then I'll let the Admiral know what we've decided. In the mean time, put out feelers for prospective candidates for the Senate and Governors positions."

**Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Quarters**

Aaron Doral had been staying on the _'Haven'_ since they had evacuated from Valhalla Anchorage and had finally been able to get a shuttle over to the Orpheus. With his administrative skills, he had always prided himself on the work he did for Militech as Admiral Kronus's personal assistant.

On arriving at the Flag Officers suite, he had commandeered the outer office area for himself, organising the area to resemble the office he had on Valhalla station. Now he was standing inside Admiral Kronus's office, looking at the disaster area that passed itself of as a desk. Paperwork work spread all over the surface, a disorganised mess.

"I'm sorry Aaron, but you know how disorganised I can be" Kronus said contritely.

His look softening, Aaron turned to face Admiral Kronus "That's alright Sir. I'll have all this sorted out in next to no time" he replied. "By the way, Admiral. A Miss Eileen Fields wishes to see you as soon as possible regarding the plans for the new civil administration. I've arranged to have her brought over from the '_City Of Eden' _within the hour."

"Thank-you Aaron, what would I do without you? As soon as she arrives, escort her here. I think the sooner we have a new government set up, the better."

**Battlestar Orpheus – Port Side Hanger Deck**

Star powered down the raptor as it descended into the bay. Turning to the single passenger, who was sitting in the jump seat in the rear compartment, she said "I hope you enjoyed the ride ma'am".

"Thank you lieutenant. Where will I be meeting with the Admiral?" Eileen Fields asked.

"I'm not sure ma'am, but it looks as though he sent someone to escort you" Star replied as she glanced out of the front of the raptor and saw Aaron Doral walking across the deck towards them.

The raptors hatch slowly opened and Eileen hiked up her dress before crossing the threshold and climbing down off the stubby wing. Looking up she saw a young man in a casual suite smiling at her.

"Miss Fields. Welcome aboard the Colonial Battlestar Orpheus. If you'll follow me please, I'll escort you to the Admirals office" he politely spoke.

She silently nodded her head and started to follow behind him as they made their way towards the elevator. Glancing around she took in all the activity on the hanger deck – vipers being repaired and serviced, parts being machined and saw not a single soul standing around as if they had nothing to do. She was impressed with the dedication of the crew.

**Construction Yard ****Aegis**** – Operations Centre**

"Well Commander, there she is. The newest Battlestar in the Colonial Fleet. She's affectionately known as a pocket Battlestar. Basically that means she's three quarters the length of a Columbia Class but with the armament of Mercury." Colonel Abel said.

The two men were standing side by side, peering out of the large panoramic window of the Operations Centre, taking in the view of the Battlestar in the yard. With her running lights on and the flood lights from the yard reflecting off the hull, she was truly a beautiful sight to behold.

"You know, with the destruction of the colonies, I had given up hope of getting my own command" the newly appointed Commander Stephen Carter said as they turned away from the window and began to make their way through the complex to the airlock connecting the Construction Yard and the Battlestar.

"Well, if Admiral Kronus can obtain enough raw materials for us, she may not be the last. How's the crew shaping up?"

Commander Carter glanced at his counterpart "they are quickly finding their way around. You know, we were fairly lucky. Both the Battlestars Pegasus and Osiris were in the Scorpion shipyards for upgrades to their CNP when the attack came and the majority of their crews were down on the surface near the spaceport when we landed. So far we have been able to find complete crews for the Colossus and the Minoa from the survivors of those two ships."

"An experienced crew will make all the difference if we're attacked again. We'll here we are Commander. Good hunting out there" Abel said as they arrived at the airlock hatchway. The two men saluted each other before Commander Carter entered the airlock and headed into the ship, the airlock closing behind him.

**Battlestar Minoa – CIC**

"Commander on deck" someone shouted as Commander Carter entered the CIC.

"As you were" he replied almost automatically whilst looking around the room, _it's a lot smaller than I envisaged_ he thought to himself. Walking across to the plot table in the centre of the room, he studied the faces of his new crew. Still scanning the room, his eyes caught the image on the far wall, a freshly painted emblem of the Battle Group the Minoa was to be attached to. '**Battlestar Minoa BSG 5**' the emblem proudly stated.

The new executive officer came and stood beside him at the plot table. "Welcome aboard Commander. All stations report ready for departure."

Commander Carter nodded "Very well XO. Initiate departure procedures and let's move her out. The sooner we're out of the yard, the sooner the knuckle draggers can start on the next Supertanker."

Colonel Xander Tyner picked up the handset "All hands. This is the XO. Prepare the ship for departure. Secure the airlock" he said before replacing the handset. "Disengage umbilical's, thrusters to station keeping."

"All sections report ready Colonel" Ensign Baker announced from his position at the communications console.

The Commander nodded "Very well. Helm, ahead one quarter, take us out and manoeuvre us to our assigned station in the fleet."

The relatively small Battlestar started to pick up speed as it crossed the threshold of the Construction Yard. As _Minoa_ was exiting one end of the yard, a couple of Colonial Tugs (Located on the surface of Carillon) began the delicate task of manoeuvring the mammoth hulk of the Supertanker into place, ready for the yards personnel to start work on it.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Quarters.**

Eileen Fields sat on the comfortable sofa in the Admirals office. Seated across from her in his armchair, Admiral Kronus was sipping from the cup of Java that Aaron had brought in for the pair before disappearing back to the outer office.

"So, Admiral..." she said only to be interrupted.

"Please call me Andrew, we're obviously going to be working closely together in the near future so I think we should be a little less formal when we're on our own" he said.

Eileen let a smile grace her delicate features. "Thank-you Andrew. As I was saying, we decided that it would be unwise to form our own traditional Government because it will undoubtedly cause more problems when we meet up with Galactica's fleet."

Kronus smiled. _They have obviously thought this all through thoroughly_ he thought to himself, referring to the focus group his crew had selected for this particular task. "What did you come up with then, Eileen?"

Eileen picked up the folder she had prepared with the Focus groups proposal in it and passed it over to Andrew. "It's all laid out in there but it basically boils down to having a Governor General instead of the President and a Senate instead of the Quorum. Both the Governor's position and the Senate can then easily be integrated with the Government formed by Laura Roslin or dissolved without any problems. I have already instructed the others to start collecting names for potential candidates and elections can be held whenever you give the go ahead."

Andrew Kronus briefly looked through the proposal, "I like your idea's Eileen, especially about keeping the Government out of the Militaries hair. Proceed with your plans, if you need any assistance contact Aaron. We'll set a provisional date for elections as two weeks from today. That should give all candidates plenty of time for canvassing."

**Carillon Orbital Hub – Slipway Eight Airlock**

Chief Lampkin and the available deck hands had just sealed the airlock hatch. He picked up the handset on the wall which connected to the ship in the slipway. "Hub to Tanker 8. I show negative pressure in the airlock. You are clear for separation."

The voice on the other end of the line replied "Thank you Chief. We are disengaging now."

Turning around, he looked over the knuckle draggers that had helped to start up the systems on the eight Supertanker. "Ok people. We've still got a lot of work to do. Grab your tools and lets start stripping this place bare. No point in leaving it operational for the toasters."

The deck hands started to make their way down the corridor, separating to enter the various compartments. "And make sure we get everything usable. We'll inventory it later when we have it on one of the freighters."

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

Ensign Jason Cain looked up from his console towards where Colonel Omega was standing talking with Captain's Pearce and Dualla. "Sir, the last of the Supertankers has disengaged from the hub and is proceeding to power up sublights to join the fleet."

Colonel Omega acknowledged him "How long before Chief Lampkin and his team are finished?"

Picking up the clipboard beside him to refer to his logs Ensign Cain replied "last report said four hours, Sir. Chief Benson's team on the surface reports they have completed stripping the mine and refinery facilities of anything remotely usable and are in the process of placing charges now."

"Good. Inform the Admiral. We've been lucky so far – 48 hours and no sign of the Cylons. That won't last though. They know we're out here somewhere, so they'll be sending out scouts before long to look for us. The sooner we can leave this system the better.


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 10: When Time Ran Out**

The rag-tag fleet of ships, survivors of the greatest holocaust in man-kinds history sat serenely in space orbiting the planet Carillon. Now fully fuelled, they used what time they had to organise themselves – converting industrial ships to passenger carriers, repairing battle damage, overhauling systems on older vessels and relieving the over-crowded conditions that were prevalent amongst the ships. They had enjoyed three days of peace, but everyone was well aware it wouldn't last.

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

The CIC was a bustle of activity; the morning shift was just coming on duty, as Admiral Kronus stepped through the hatch with a steaming cup of java in his hand.

"Good Morning, Admiral" Colonel Omega called out as he spotted his superior officer.

Kronus smiled. "What's the fleet's current status, Colonel?"

Omega reached across the plot table and picked up the mornings pile of reports. Scanning through them to discern the most relevant, he started to fill the Admiral in. "Dradis remains clear, for how long remains to be seen. The Battlestars Theseus and Morpheus report that they've finished the transfer of civilian to the five liners we acquired in the Cygnus system. That means that their hanger decks are operational again. The commanding officers of the five liners state that they now have full passenger manifests. The Construction Yards report that the first two Supertanker conversions have been completed ahead of schedule, thanks to the use of the engineering staff and deck crews of the military ships. The shuttles are already transferring civilians to them, that operation should be completed in another couple of hours."

"That's good news, Colonel."

Omega continued, "Commander Abel sent a message stating that they are starting to run low on deck plating, I've already arranged for the fabrication facilities within the fleet to start manufacturing plating but unless we find a suitable asteroid belt to mine for resources, we won't have enough to complete converting the other four ships. By the way Admiral, we can't keep calling them _the Supertankers_, what are you going to name them?"

Admiral Kronus leaned closer to Colonel Omega, so that they wouldn't be overheard. "I have names for the first four. Kobol's Hope, Kobol's Faith, Colonial Dreams and Colonial Voyager. I thought that we might allow the people in the fleet to suggest names for the others, give them something to take their minds off of our current situation."

Suddenly Captain Pearce shouted out across the room as the Dradis display bleeped. "Contact, Dradis Contact. Five Cylon Baseships bearing 298 karem 102, their launching raiders."

No sooner had he called out than the klaxon began wailing throughout the battlestar.

"Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship this is not a drill" the tactical officer announced over the comm system.

"Cylon Basestar's launching Raiders"

"Launch the alert vipers," Admiral Kronus ordered. "Tell all ships to jump to the emergency co-ordinates, plan Kronus Beta."

The newly formed Battle Groups of the Minotaur and the Vigilant jumped out of the Carillon system, closely followed by the civilian vessels and the construction yards. The three remaining Battle Groups moved to take up an attack formation, moving at flank speed towards the Cylon fleet. They may have been forced to leave the colonies, but every man and woman in the Military had vowed to fight back at the Cylons at every available opportunity.

The professionalism of the Colonial Fleet was showing itself in the actions of the crew, as the Battlestar Orpheus took her place at the front of the formation.

"Helm. Bring us around 60 degrees, bow down one half. Stand by enemy suppression barrage. Tactical, get me a firing solution on the nearest Basestar. Let's give them a bloody nose." Kronus barked out, the crew rushing to carry out his orders.

As the Battle Groups charged towards their respective targets, the viper squadrons were engaging the onslaught of raiders. The fight was evenly matched.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Viper Squadron**

"Orpheus, this is Zeus. I have visual contact on the Cylon raiders and am moving to engage." Captain Alexi Dualla called into his radio mic.

"Acknowledged Zeus. Actual says concentrate on the raiders on the leave the Basestar's to the big boys" responded Ensign Jason Cain.

The mass of raiders, probably numbering about a thousand accelerated towards the squadrons of vipers of the Colonial Fleet, rapidly closing the distance.

"Ok, everyone, hold it together – here they come" Zeus called out to the pilots of the combined squadrons.

The raiders each launched several missiles from their underbellies aimed in the direction of the vipers. They spun around quickly and began firing their guns at the wall of vipers.

"All vipers, broken formation. Razzle-dazzle. Break, Break, Break" Zeus shouted in his adrenaline induced excitement. The colonial pilots started evasive manoeuvres. Those viper pilots that weren't quite fast enough exploded in brief fireballs which momentarily lit up the darkness of space.

A few high-caliber bullets whizzed past the cockpit of his viper as raider after raider flew by, to engage the vipers. The wireless was filled with reports, people cheering hits and cursing close calls.

"Hey, Hera. You've got one on your tail" Zeus called out to his friend after spotting a raider targeting his wingman.

"Not for long, Zeus" she replied.

Hera quickly fired her manoeuvring thrusters and performed a high G turn, completely turning the viper around 180 degrees and heading straight back towards the Cylon raider firing her guns and shredding the raider before pulling away again going in search of her next target"

**Battlestar Orpheus - CIC**

The CIC continued to buzz with activity as the crews concentrated their duties. They had trained for this and they were going to get some payback for the destruction of their homes and families.

"Initiate Suppression fire. Tactical, do we have a firing solution yet" Colonel Omega called out.

"Targeting solution obtained Colonel. Ready to fire on your mark"

"Fire the rail guns. The Firestars and frigates can finish them off as we hit the next ship"

A thick hail of gunfire erupted from the flank of the large Battlestar, as the large calibre rail gun rounds exited the barrels on the bow of the beast heading at near light speed towards their target. Hitting the Basestar on its central axis they tore through the hull plating, exiting the other side and leaving the Basestar leaking atmosphere. Small explosion could be seen as the smaller ships moved in for the kill as the Battlestar turned to its next target.

Like a pack of wolves, the colonials fought together focussing on one Basestar at a time until a large explosion lit up space indicating the death throes of the last Cylon ship.

With the Basestar's destroyed, what raiders had survived began to jump away, before they too were destroyed.

Admiral Kronus turned to the Ensign manning the communication console "Order all vipers to return and then we'll rejoin the fleet."

"Aye, Sir" he replied before switching to the viper channel. "Orpheus to all vipers. Return to base, I repeat, all vipers return to base".

Colonel Omega walked over to where the Admiral was standing. "Sir, Damage reports from the Battle Groups. We lost 13 vipers; the Gunstar Oberon has hull breaches along its starboard side. Minor damage to the rest of the ships. Damage control teams are already initiating repairs."

**Cylon Basestar – Orbit of Caprica**

"We'll that went well, six!" The sarcastic tones of one of the Cavil models said. "Any more ideas to deal with the human menace?"

In the control centre on board the command base star, the seductive looking, statuesque blond woman know as six stared back at Cavil. A barely concealed rage visible on her face.

"We still have not been able to contact our sleeper agents on those ships; they should have been activated by now." Number six said to the other Cylons present in the control centre. "And until we do, attacking a fleet that size will only result in more losses for us."

"They managed to destroy five Basestar's before jumping out of the system this time. We must not allow those humans to escape and join forces with the Galactica. If we allow that then the humans will return one day and seek their vengeance upon us for our sins."

The problem though, was that there were too many Basestar's already tasked with the pursuit of the Galactica and its small fleet of ships. "We cannot spare enough forces to engage them directly at the moment. We must be patient and Gods will be done."

"What do you propose that we do then, six? They are still a formidable force."

"We must force them towards the Galactica and catch them between our two task forces."

"That still ties up a lot of base ships, we could better use in eradicating the pests from the colonies." Doral said.

"I agree with six." The Cylon known as Boomer said.

"Then it's agreed" six replied.


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 11: Finding Kobol**

The last two days had been fairly quiet for the ships of the colonial survivors. Since their last encounter with the five Basestar's, there had been no sign of Cylon pursuit. Everyone was well aware that the Cylons would not give up and just let them go, so time was spent repairing battle damage and servicing the vipers and raptors.

Under normal operations a Battlestar would send raptors ahead of the fleet to scout the area in advance, and this voyage was no exception.

**Raptor 212 – Unknown Sector**

A Brief flash of light that lit up the darkness of space was all that indicated the Colonial raptor emerging from its FTL jump.

"Ok Bear. Start the sensor sweep" Hera commanded her ECO.

Bear concentrated on his work as he started scanning the area they had emerged in. "Scanners are picking up a habitable planet in this system with what looks like debris in a planetary orbit. See if you can get us closer Hera, I want to get some images of the planet and the debris." Bear said.

Firing the thrusters, Hera manoeuvred the raptor closer to the planet, trying to avoid hitting any of the debris.

"Hera, that wreckage out there is from MkII vipers and Cylon raiders. Can you make out what ship the vipers are from?"

"Hang on Bear, I'm taking us in for a closer look" she said, positioning the raptor near what remained of the rear half of a viper. "Frak!" she exclaimed. "Well this one reads as from the Galactica. Looks like we found their trail. Is there anything to indicate the wreckage from a Battlestar?"

"Negative Hera. But if they've only got MkII's I don't see how they are managing to survive the Cylon attacks" He replied.

Hera laughed. "I wouldn't worry about them too much. I remember Commander Adama. He is one hell of a Commanding Officer, and as for the viper squadron – well, do you remember Starbuck – she was stationed aboard the Galactica."

"Hell, she's got to have been one of the best pilots in the fleet. How did she end up on the 'Bucket' ?" Bear asked.

Hera turned round in her seat and glanced back towards Bear. "From what I understand, it had something to do with discipline problems. Basically – no other commander would have her. Now let's get those visuals and get back to the fleet."

**Battlestar Orpheus – Wardroom**

Lieutenant Susan Meredith and Lieutenant JG Luke Zarek were standing around the table in the wardroom, having been joined with Captain Dualla, Colonel Omega and Admiral Kronus. Having returned to the fleet, they had immediately been summoned to meet with the senior officers to review the images taken by their raptor.

Looking at the pictures that were spread out across the table, Captain Dualla commented "I've seen this layout before in the sacred scrolls". The image he referred to was an aerial view of the ruined remains of a city. "That looks like the remains of the Forum and the Opera House"

"If it is then that would mean that this planet is Kobol" Lieutenant Meredith said reverently.

Admiral Kronus looked up at the pair. "Let's not jump to conclusions. The fact is this planet has been visited by Galactica, so Commander Adama probably left a message buoy here for any Colonials following him. We'll jump the fleet into orbit of the planet; raptors can then be assigned to collect the wreckage for processing on the refinery ship. Any vipers we can salvage can be rebuilt and assigned to the academy ships as trainers. Once that is complete, we'll conduct a planetary survey. If... and I do mean if, this turns out to be Kobol, there should be some clue as to the direction taken by the thirteenth tribe. That will have been what Galactica would have been looking for, I'll bet."

"Admiral, if I remember the scrolls correctly, then we need to find the Tomb of Athena. Legend states that the arrow of Apollo will help show the way to Earth, but we don't have the arrow. It's still in the museum on Caprica."

"We may not have the arrow itself, but we should be able to construct a reproduction using the information in the ships cultural databases."

**Battlestar Orpheus – Brig**

Admiral Kronus entered the detention centre quietly. The marine on duty immediately saluted his superior officer.

"At ease, marine. How have our prisoners been behaving?" Admiral Kronus asked.

"Sir, they have been talking between themselves, but no hostile actions."

Kronus nodded and walked over to the cell containing the two human form Cylons. His presence was immediately noticed by Colonel Henry Cavil, who stood up from the small bunk and approached the bars.

"Well, this is awkward" he stated rather sarcastically.

Admiral Kronus gave Henry Cavil a steely stare. '_It's hard to believe these beings are machines – they look so human_' he thought. "You've put me in a difficult position, Henry. On the one hand, you've worked for me for five years without any problems....."

"And on the other, I'm a frakking toaster!" Henry finished the Admirals statement. "Look. I was not even aware I was a Cylon before I woke up in life station. I have memories of serving in the Colonial Fleet for twenty years. Now, I don't know if those memories are real or just programmed."

The look on his face showed the Admiral how conflicted Cavil's emotions were. "Henry, tell me what you do know for sure and I might be able to help you."

Henry looked up into the Admirals face, "I know I'm a Cylon. But whatever I was programmed to do has been erased. I think it has something to do with the radiation in the nebula. Doctor Cutter told me that the radiation is known to degrade silica pathways. I also know that there are twelve models of the human form Cylons, seven of those models are the ones that launched the attacks on the Colonies, but the identities of the final five are unknown to the other models."

"Will you agree to identify the three models that we have not encountered yet?" Admiral Kronus asked.

"If I identify the others for you, I want something in return." Henry said.

Admiral Kronus gave that a minutes thought before replying. "I'll consider it."

"Thank you Admiral. What I want is rather simple. I want to be able to resume my post on the Minotaur." Kronus was about to comment, but Henry continued. "I know what you're going to say, but as far as Sharon and I are concerned, whatever else we may be, we consider ourselves to be Colonial Officers first and foremost. We understand that we will have to prove ourselves trustworthy to our fellow officers, but we can't do that sitting in the Brig."

Coming to a decision, Admiral Kronus stepped closer to the bars of the cell. "You can begin to earn that trust by telling me who the other Cylons in the fleet are. I assure you they will be treated fairly. As for resuming your duties, I will allow that but you'll have a Constant Marine escort everywhere you go. If you do anything to bring harm to this fleet, I will personally send you out an airlock. Do we understand one another?"

Henry nodded in the affirmative.

"Admiral" Sharon called out, "Are the rumours true? Are we in orbit of Kobol?"

Kronus shifted his gaze to the back of the cell where Sharon was sitting on the bunk with her back against the wall. "What do you know about Kobol?" he asked suspiciously.

Sharon stood up and walked across the cell towards the Admiral, looking him straight in the eye. "I'm not sure how I know, but I seem to have knowledge of the location of the Tomb of Athena. I believe that according to the scrolls of Pythia that is supposed to show the route to Earth."

"Lieutenant, I will be sending a team to the surface in a couple of hours to determine if this is in fact Kobol. You will accompany the team and lead them to the Tomb. I'm placing a lot of trust in you. Do not let me down, Understood!"

"Yes, Sir" she replied smiling.

**Raptor 218 – Planetary Recon Team**.

The bulky form of the Colonial raptor from the Battlestar Orpheus was being piloted by the Cylon Lieutenant Sharon 'Tempest' Rogers and her ECO Lieutenant Aaron 'Iceman' Fisk, with a compliment of Colonial Marines. They were being escorted by vipers from the Battlestar Minotaur as they entered the planets ionosphere.

"Tempest, there's a clearing up ahead next to the ruins. I recommend we land there" Iceman called out.

"I see it Iceman. I'll set us down next to the wreckage of Galactica's raptor. We can take a look at it, the Old Man may want to salvage it and return it to Galactica when we catch up to them." Sharon stated.

She brought the raptor into a hovering position above the meadow, firing the thrusters to bring them into a gentle landing on the surface. The Marines took the time to quickly check their firearms as Iceman released his seat straps and moved to open the hatch.

"Naylor, take point" Marine Sergeant Hobbs commanded.

Corporal Barry Naylor responded almost automatically "Aye, Sergeant", as he made his way to the hatch. He exited the raptor, scanning the area for anything unusual before signalling the all clear for the others.

"Let's check out that raptor before we do anything else." Sharon said.

"Lieutenant, remember what the Admiral said" Sergeant Hobbs reminded her. She nodded back at him in acknowledgement.

They carefully made their way to the crashed raptor. Sharon and Aaron doing a quick visual inspection of the exterior.

"Well, she's taken a hell of a battering. The engines are shot and the main windscreen will need replacing, but she's structurally sound. Iceman, what's the cabin like?"

The hatch had been left open by the raptors previous occupants, so Aaron quickly jumped inside to take a look. "Med-kits are gone – looks like they survived the crash. A few components will need replacing but it's otherwise intact." Iceman reported.

"Ok, let's take a look at where we are." Sharon said taking charge.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Suite**

Admiral Kronus was sitting at his desk going over the fleet reports with Colonel Omega and Miss Eileen Fields. So far everything had been running smoothly.

"Admiral, the scans taken by the recon raptors show good mineral deposits on the southern continent. It might be worth landing the mining ships so that we can replenish our supplies while we can" Omega said, looking up from the report he was reading.

"Go ahead, who knows when we will have this opportunity again. Miss Fields, How are the election plans coming along?"

Eileen glanced up at the Admiral and smiled. "The nominees have been campaigning around the fleet and the voting will be taking place tomorrow. We've managed to locate some members of the media in the fleet and they are putting together a press organisation for the fleet. They are called it IFB short for Inter Fleet Broadcasting. They will transmit the election results to all the ships in the fleet as soon as the results are in."

Kronus acknowledged her with a slight nod. "Freedom of the press will be important. We will have to find them suitable facilities to operate properly. Colonel, maybe we can convert the Colonial Transport Ship Typhoon into a broadcasting ship, what do you think?"

"It shouldn't be that difficult to do. It's only a small vessel, but will have enough space for a couple of small studios, a few offices and such." Colonel Omega replied after referring to his notes on the fleet's ships. "We can also take the time to convert one of the Pan-Galactic liners into an administrative centre to operate the government, maybe Pan-Galactic 120. Captain Tychos once told me it was due to go into dry dock for a refit before the attacks."

Kronus leaned back in his chair, "That's a good idea. Get the engineering teams started on that."

Eileen lent forward, resting her elbows on the edge of the desk. "Did you know that when we asked for nominees, a lot of people within the civilian ships put your name down for the Governors position, Admiral" she told him.

"I hope you let them know that I would not accept such a position. There's a reason for the separation between the government and the military. It would be all too easy for a military dictatorship to form" he stated looking slightly concerned.

"Don't worry Admiral. Your position has already been explained to the people, but it just goes to show the level of faith the people have in your leadership."

**Planetary Recon Team – Surface of Kobol**

The recon team spread out as the traversed the large expanse of the ruined city, carefully negotiating their way across the block of stones that littered the area. The marines were constantly on the lookout for any trouble, both from the Cylon they were escorting and anything that remained on the planet's surface.

Gradually they picked their way to the remains of the main buildings in the centre of the city. Sharon entered what would have been the opera house, now just a collection of stones. She ran her hands over the intricately carved blocks and was surprised as her vision briefly blurred. Blinking her eyes to adjust her sight, she was shocked to find herself inside an ornately decorated building. Chandeliers glistened as they hung from the ceiling. Velvet drapes hung across the back of the stage.

"Greetings sister."

The voice startled her and she spun around to find the image of a tall, blonde woman in a low-cut red dress and high heels walking across the room towards her.

"What is this place?" she asked her new companion.

"This is the future, sister." The blonde woman replied indicating the stage.

They turned back towards the stage of the opera house. Sharon gasped in surprise, for where there was originally an empty stage, there now stood five figures in bright white hooded gowns bathed in a strong, bright light.

"Who are they?" she asked.

The blonde woman smiled. "They are the final five. The future of the Cylon race. It is forbidden to gaze upon their faces. God has granted you a great gift. He is allowing you to know who they are."

Sharon gingerly made her way towards the five figures, who started to remove the hoods which obscured their features. "Lords of Kobol!" she exclaimed.

"God will reveal their roles soon my sister." The blond woman said, as Sharon vision changed again and she found herself standing in the ruins once again.

Lieutenant Fisk walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder, which surprised her, making her jump. "Are you alright Sharon? You seemed to blank out on us. I was getting worried."

She turned around to face him, "I must talk to the Admiral right away, its important."

Fisk looked at her confused "What's so important that you need to talk to him now?"

She made sure she was looking him straight in the eye "I've seen the faces of the final five, I know who they are!"


	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 12: The Road to Earth.**

**Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Suite**

The knock on the door broke the Admirals concentration as he reviewing the reports of the current mining operations on the planet below. Placing the folder back down on the desk, he stood up from his desk and called out for whoever it was to enter.

Opening the door, Lieutenant Sharon Rogers walked into the Admirals office to stand in front of his desk. Saluting her superior officer she waited for him to acknowledge her before she started talking.

"Lieutenant, what was so important that you would abandon your mission and return here on full thrusters?" Admiral Kronus questioned.

Sharon, feeling contrite about the use of so much fuel being used to return to the fleet as quickly as she could, hung her head slightly. "Admiral, this may sound strange but, when we were exploring the ruins of the opera house, I had what I believe to have been a vision."

"And what did you see in this vision, Lieutenant?" Kronus asked.

Sharon looked up at the Admiral "Sir, I was standing in the opera house. Not the ruins but what it looked like when Kobol was inhabited. There was a blond woman. I believe she was a number six model. She told me that God was granting me a gift in seeing the faces of the final five models – the ones that even the other Cylon models have not seen."

"All right Lieutenant" Admiral Kronus sighed, trying to ignore the pit of nervous energy in this stomach "You have my attention. Tell me everything, and start at the beginning"

"Every Cylon knows that there were 12 cylon human models created. We considered ourselves children of humanity. Seven of the models were obsessed with revenge for what was considered the slavery of the Cylon race before the Cylon war. They began to believe that they were chosen by god to carry out his revenge and exterminate the human race. The final five are believed to have believed in the possibility of living in peace with humans and when they found out the plans of the first seven models they vowed to guide and protect what remained of the population of the twelve colonies after the holocaust so that the human race would survive. The seven original models were so enraged at their brothers and sisters that they erased the identities of the final five from the memories of all the Cylons."

**Planetary Recon Team – Surface of Kobol**

The reconnaissance team had returned to the surface, this time escorted by a second raptor filled with more manpower and equipment to explore and map the ruined city.

"So Sharon, where is the Tomb then?" Lieutenant Aaron Fisk asked.

Sharon slowly turned around in a circle, scanning the landscape to get her bearings. Spotting the mountain range in the distance, she stopped and pointed towards a distant peak. "The Tomb of Athena lies up there. There should be a path that leads along the ridge."

"That's going to take us at least a few hours. Don't suppose we could land the raptor any closer, eh?"

Sharon shifted her gaze to look at Aaron. "No. That landscape is too rocky. We'll have to journey there on foot. Not afraid of a little exercise are we?"

Aaron picked up the case containing the Arrow of Apollo that the Admiral had had reproduced and slung the strap over his shoulder. "Ok then. Let's get going while we still have some daylight."

**Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Suite**

Admiral Kronus picked up the file from his desk and walked across the room to where Eileen Fields was sat on the couch. He handed the file to her before sitting down in the armchair opposite her.

"She recognised two of them as being in the Colonial Fleet aboard the Galactica. A third is a well known pyramid player by the name of Samuel Anders. The other two, we don't have names for yet but Sharon sat down with an artist we found and managed to give us good artist impressions of them."

Eileen took the file from him. "Are you sure that you can trust her Andrew?"

Admiral Kronus sat forward in the chair to add emphasise to what he was saying. "I'm very sure we can, but just to be on the safe side, I'm having both her and Colonel Cavil constantly monitored. So far they have been co-operative and consistent with their duties."

Eileen rested the file on the coffee table between them, opening it to review the information that Admiral Kronus had gathered regarding the identities of the human form Cylons. She quickly skimmed through the pictures provided by Henry Cavil of the first seven models.

"I recognise a few of these. This one" she said pointing to a picture of Henry, "is one of the priests on board the '_City of Eden_' and this next one I've seen on the Hospital ship. Now what was his name..... Ah yes, Doctor Simon Beech." She turned the page and a slight gasp escaped her lips at the image staring up at her from the page.

"Yes, I know. I've already spoken to Aaron about this. The shock hit him very hard. In fact, I've had to send him for counselling. I honestly believe he had no knowledge of being a Cylon until I showed him this."

Eileen, having quickly recovered, looked up at the Admiral. "What do you intend to do with these Cylons?"

Kronus relaxed back into his chair. "I've consulted with all the doctors in the fleet and the all concur on one point. The radiation in the nebula seems to have erased any hidden programming they may have had and left only the base personality. We've managed to confirm that none of the Cylons in the fleet had any direct involvement in the destruction of the colonies, so it would be unethical for us to punish them for the crimes of their brethren. I'm going to gather them all together and explain this all to them and offer them a choice. They can remain with us and be productive members of Colonial society or we will leave them on the surface of Kobol when we leave."

"Is that wise?"

"It's fair Eileen. Sharon told me that the human form Cylons think of themselves as humanities children. And in a sense they are right. They were created by humans but when they achieved sentience we continued to treat them like mere robots. We have a unique duty to treat these particular Cylons with dignity and understanding." He paused, taking a sip from his glass of water. "You know, I always thought of Aaron as the son I never had, and I won't just turn my back on him."

Eileen looked at Kronus, judging the sincerity with which he spoke. "You realise, Andrew, there's going to be quite a few people who will not agree with you on this. Many will wish to just send them out of the nearest airlock."

"I know Eileen. That's another reason why I'm going to assign marines to escort them around."

**Planetary Recon Team – Surface of Kobol**

The hillside was getting decidedly steeper, the higher the reconnaissance team ascended towards the mountain ridge. The trees and dense undergrowth often obscuring the ancient path and slowing their progress.

"Sir, I think you may want to see this" Corporal Naylor called out.

Sergeant Hobbs brushed past the rest of the team on the narrow path and proceeded to catch up with the Corporal, who had taken point. He looked in the direction that the Corporal was pointing and noticed the recent burial just off to the side of the track-way. A small grave marker carefully placed on top of the mound.

"Looks like the scrolls were right. They said any return to Kobol will be paid for in blood."

"Come on" Sharon said. "We can worry about the dead later. We need to press on – we've still got a fair way to go."

The other all nodded solemnly. One by one, they turned away from the grave and continued on their upward trek.

**Battlestar Theseus – Forward Magazine**

Carefully checking the surrounding area, the dark haired woman entered the security code into the keypad and opened the hatch. With a small bag in her hand, she entered the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

Quickly surveying the room, she took a small, oval, white coloured device from the bag. Pressing the activation switch, she carefully placed the object behind a large pallet of ammunition. Satisfied that it would not easily be discovered, she scooped up the bag and with as much caution as she could muster, left the room, making sure that the hatch was closed behind her before disappearing into the busy corridors of the Battlestar.

**Planetary Recon Team – Surface of Kobol**

The climb had been hard going, even on the athletic Marines. But the recon team had finally arrived at a large flat area near the summit. The path they had been following ended in front of what appeared at first glance to be a solid wall of rock, half covered in plant life.

"Where's the Tomb then Sharon? I don't see any buildings up here" Aaron said.

Sharon looked at him as if she were dealing with an idiot. "A Tomb does not have to be inside a building you know" she replied sarcastically. "If you care to look more closely, this rock face has a door cut into it. We just have to work out how to open it."

Spreading themselves out along the rock face, the members of the recon team started examining the area for any sign of a mechanism to open the door to the Tomb, but there was nothing of the sort to be seen.

"Maybe it's simpler than it looks" Corporal Spencer said. "Here, someone give me a hand."

He adjusted his posture to put his weight against the rock door and started pushing. Two of the other Marines taking up a similar stance.

"On three. 1 ... 2 ... 3". Slowly the giant stone began to move, revealing a chamber on the other side. Sharon, Aaron and Sergeant Hobbs cautiously made their way inside with the others following close behind.

The large chamber appeared roughly circular in nature with 12 stone sarcophagus evenly spaced around the room. On the top of each sarcophagus there were the remains of a golden statue.

"Frak me!" Aaron explained.

Sergeant Hobbs walked towards one of the statues. "What do these statues represent?"

"These are the ancient symbols of the twelve tribes. The ram over there represent Aries. The bull over by the door represents Taurus and that archer over there represents Sagittarian." Sharon took a few steps towards the statue. "And guess what he's missing."

Aaron released the case from his shoulder and removed the golden arrow that was encased inside. "Here Sharon, you do the honours" he said as he passed the arrow to her.

Hesitantly, Sharon placed the arrow onto the archers bow. As the arrow connected with the statue, the stone door slammed shut and they found themselves standing in the centre of a circle of stone pillars with grass beneath their feet and a clear night sky above them.

"What the frak happened? Where are we?" Sergeant Hobbs asked clearly agitated.

"Relax Sergeant. It's just a hologram. Look at those stone columns. The pictographs show the old names of the Colonies." Looking up Aaron examined the starry sky. "They pictographs match the star constellations up there."

"..... and they looked towards the heavens and low they saw their twelve brothers" Sharon said, quoting from the ancient scrolls. "This place must be Earth and that must be what constellations are visible from the planet. It's a map to Earth! Aaron, get your visual recorder out. We'll need to make a copy of this for the Admiral to see."

**Battlestar Orpheus – Wardroom**

"So, I take it the arrow worked then" Colonel Omega stated to the recon team once they had assembled in the wardroom upon returning from the surface.

"Yeah. It worked perfectly Sir. We got a good recording of what we saw in the Tomb as well" Aaron said.

They all sat and watched the recording of the star constellations as it played on the viewer in the wardroom.

Admiral Kronus stopped the recording and turned around in his chair to face the others. "This is not a map we can use." The disappointment clearly visible on every ones faces. "But I do recognise that feature" he said pointing to a small multi coloured cloud-like image. "That's astral body M8. We can use that to give us a general direction and adjust our star charts as we go until we can extrapolate the positions of the constellations and get a fix on Earth's location. I'm willing to bet that Commander Adama will be doing the same, he always struck me as a smart man."


	14. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

I am sorry it has taken so long to continue this story but real life has been real busy. Time is opening up for me and now I can get this story rolling again.

**Chapter 13: The Election**

**Cloud 7 – Function Room A**

The campaigning was finally over and all the candidates were waiting for, was the votes from the fleet. Polling stations had been set up on each of the ships, with ballot boxes being guarded by Marines. Once the voting was completed, the ballot boxes would be taken by a select group of officers to a counting room which had been set up on board Cloud 7, where the votes would be tabulated.

Function Room A, had been selected as a place for all the candidates to gather as the voting commenced and the results were counted. A small stage had been arranged at the far end of the room with a podium showing the seal of the Colonies at the front of the stage, whilst arranged at the back were the flags of the 12 Colonies and of the Colonial Government. The captain of Cloud 7 had ensured that a buffet was available for everyone and was laid out on tables running along the side of the room.

Tensions were running high amongst the candidates, but there was also a spirit of hope for the future that seemed to permeate the room.

"It shouldn't be long now" Warren Caso stated to the small group he was mingling with.

"I know, but even once the various posts have been selected, there's still a lot of work ahead" Joseph Leman replied, taking a sip from his glass of vintage ambrosia.

"Such as?" one of the other candidates asked.

Glancing around at his colleagues he replied "Well, there's restarting the economy for starters. Remember, there no businesses anymore, so starting new ones will have to be a priority. Then there's the establishment of law enforcement. You can't expect the Marines to do the work of a police force – it will just give the populace the impression of a military dictatorship. Of course we'll also have to sort out about the education of our children."

"Yes, we're talking about basically having to re-establish civilization whilst travelling on numerous ships through uncharted space. If you think about it, it's a gargantuan task if ever there was one."

A distinguished, grey haired gentleman, who had been standing to the side of the group, interrupted their conversation. "There's one issue that nobody seems to want to voice yet. What about the prisoners that were being transported on the prison barge?"

Robert Blackner turned to face the gentleman. "As I understand it James, those prisoners were on their way back to Caprica for parole hearings when the Cylons attacked. I have it on good authority that not one of them was a violent criminal and all of them had served their sentences with good behaviour. I have been told that Admiral Kronus plans to go over to the prison barge tomorrow to arrange their release into the general populace, so you see there really isn't an issue to discuss."

**Cloud 7 – Function Room C.**

The small room was crowded with the tables set for the tabulations clerks, the Marine guards and the piles of returning ballot boxes. Captain Harmon Goldman from the Battlestar Vigilant had been tasked with overseeing the counting of the votes, a duty he took very seriously. His eager eyes seemed to be everywhere at once as he watched the activity in the room.

"How many ships are we still waiting on, Progna?" he asked the young Lieutenant who was monitoring the return of ballot boxes as they came in from each ship in the fleet.

Carefully checking his clipboard, he replied "The City of Caprica is the last one, Sir. Flash and Balls are on route with the boxes now. I'm surprised that there haven't been any attempts to tamper with the voting, Sir."

Captain Goldman turned his gaze from the room to the Lieutenant. "The Sagittarian's on the Falling Star tried to intimidate people before they went into the booths earlier this afternoon, but Sergeant Blair and his Marines soon took care of that. Quite honestly, I was expecting more trouble than that."

Admiral Kronus strolled into the room and headed over to where Captain Goldman had been standing. "Sit-rep, Captain?" he asked as he approached the young officer.

Captain Goldman turned to face Admiral Kronus. "Sir, the last of the ballot boxes are being transported over here now. The numerators should have the final results in about an hour."

"Any trouble?"

"Not really, Sir. Apart from a small incident of intimidation by a small group of Sagittarians this afternoon, everything has been running smoothly" he reported.

Admiral Kronus smiled and nodded at that statement, before turning and walking back down the corridor to rejoin the group of anxious candidates waiting inside the large function room on the luxury liner.

**Cloud 7 – Function Room A**

"Can I have everyone's attention please?" The voice of the petite form of the moderator, a former lawyer from Geminon, carried across the room stopping numerous conversations as people turned to see what was going on.

Seeing that she had everyone's attention she continued. "If everyone could take their seats, we'll announce the results of the elections."

This was the moment everyone in the fleet had been waiting for since the start of the elections and it was being broadcast live by the new IFB to every ship in the fleet. The noise level rose slightly as people moved towards the tables and chairs that had been arranged in front of the small stage where the moderator's podium sat.

"For the benefit of those watching these proceedings via Inter Fleet Broadcasting, everyone eligible to vote has placed two votes. The first vote is for the position of Governor General who will oversee the government and will have the status similar to the President of the Colonies. Secondly, the people from each colony have voted on a delegate to represent them in the newly formed Senate, a roll similar to the quorum."

She paused, mainly for effect, and glanced around the room. The anticipation clearly visible on many faces. "The results of the election for representatives to the senate are as follows. For Aerlon, Mr Thomas Keikeya. For Caprica, Mr Robert Blackner. For Picon, Miss Dorothea Amelie. For Geminon, Miss Sarah Biers. For Tauron, Mr Joseph Lemon. For Sagittaron, Mr James Garon. For Scorpion, Mr Thomas Grayson. For Canceron, Mr Warren Caso. For Virgon, Mr William Sykes. For Libron, Mrs Jackie Hoshi. For Aquarion, Mr Horatio Clark and for Leonis, Mr Anthony Simmons."

As each successful candidate was announced a small ripple of clapping broke out in the room.

The moderator angled the microphone to speak and then opened the envelope that had been placed on the podium just prior to the announcements. "By a vote 92 percent, it gives me great pleasure to announce the new Governor General for the Twelve Colonies of Kobol.....Miss Eileen Fields."

Eileen rose from her seat, a nervous smile on her face as the room filled with the sounds of clapping and cheerful shouts. Squaring her shoulders, she gracefully made her way to the front of the room and up to the small podium, where the moderator had now been joined by a priestess. After shaking hands with the petite moderator, Eileen turned to face the rather stout form of the priestess, who opened the copy of the sacred scrolls all priests and priestess's always seemed to carry with them.

"Please raise your right hand and repeat after me" the priestess said. "I, Eileen Fields do hereby avow and affirm..."

"I, Eileen Fields do hereby avow and affirm..." Eileen repeated, her voice cracking slightly as she began to realise the enormity of the role she would now play in the survival of the human race.

"... that I accept the position of the Governor of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol...." the priestess continued.

"... that I accept the position of the Governor of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol...."

"... and that I will protect and defend the colonies with every fibre of my being" the priestess finished.

"... and that I will protect and defend the colonies with every fibre of my being."

After swearing the oath of office, Eileen turned back towards the podium as the priestess quietly closed her scroll and slipped back off the stage.

Addressing mainly the camera's that had been silently filming the proceeding, Eileen decided a short speech would be most appropriate. "I wish to thank everyone who took the time to vote in this very unusual election. Now the real work begins. Starting tomorrow morning at 9am, the Senate will convene onboard the newly renamed 'Kobol One', which will serve as our seat of government, to begin the process of re-establishing our society. We realise that without a planet, this will not be an easy task, but we will prevail and humanity will survive and grow."

The whole room erupted into applause at the conclusion of her speech.


	15. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 14: Looking to the Future**

**Academy Training Vessel 'Terpsichore'**

Commander Gene Wilker wandered the empty halls of the old Columbia class Battlestar. She had been one of the original Battlestars build by the Colonies at the outbreak of the Cylon War. Thermopolae had been converted into a training vessel after the armistice had been signed and now over half of her internal space was given over to classrooms and simulators for the teaching of cadets in their final year at the Academy. Her flight decks had only held 30 vipers and two raptors ship the ship left Caprica 3 months ago, and only a handful of academy students had been on board at the time of the destruction of the Colonies.

"What use is a training vessel if you don't have anyone to train? " Commander Wilker thought as he passed by one of the astrometrics classroom. He sighed as he continued walking down the corridor on his daily tour of the ship.

An idea slowly took shape in his mind, gradually forming into a well thought out plan as he turned and briskly walked back towards the CIC.

"Colonel Stade, get a raptor ready. I'm heading over to the Orpheus to see the Admiral. Maybe we can get ourselves some new recruits."

Colonel Stade looked questioningly at his CO before ordering the raptor readied.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Flag Officers Suite**

The knock on the door startled Admiral Kronus as he had been engrossed in reading the latest updates from the operations currently underway on the planet below them.

"Come in" he called out.

Aaron entered the office closely followed by a tall, balding, older colonial officer. "Commander Wilker to see you Admiral."

"Thank you Aaron. Come in Gene, so how are you doing?"

Commander Wilker walked over and took a seat in front of the Admirals desk. "To be quite frank Admiral. We're all bored to tears now that you've taken away all our cadets."

Admiral Kronus leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Unfortunately, it was necessary for them to graduate early, Gene."

"I know" Wilker replied. "But it got me thinking. If the fleet is to survive, we're going to need to have a least one class of cadets in training at any given time. We've got the Terpsichore and the Thaleia both sitting virtually empty. Between the two ships, we have everything needed to restart the Academy. All we're short of is the nuggets. I've noticed that the fleet is also short on other qualified flight crews. I'd like to suggest starting a recruitment drive for the Academy and with your permission Admiral, I'd like us to be able to offer flight and command training for the civilian crews in the fleet.

Admiral Kronus thought about Commander Wilker's idea. "You right Gene. We are short of qualified civilian flight personnel and training new people will enable the military personnel to resume their normal duties. It's also good to have more cadets being trained. What's your plan then?"

Commander Wilker leaned forward in the chair. "I thought about maybe getting IFB to do a documentary about the surviving military personnel – a fly on the wall type thing and follow that with a brief advent to announce the recruiting for both the Academy and the flight school."

"I agree with your idea for the documentary. It will give the people a chance to see what life in the Colonial Fleet is really like, not just the glamorous image the viper jocks have. I'll have Aaron contact IFB over on the media ship to get the ball rolling." Admiral Kronus said as he stood up from behind the desk. "Gene, I know that we already have a curriculum and instructors for the Academy students, but I'd like you to get together with Commander Taggert on the Thaleia to put together something similar for the civilians."

Commander Wilker rose from his chair, anxious to get started. "Aye, Sir. We'll have a copy of the plans ready for your review in 24 hours."

**IFB Ship – Newshound**

Aaron Doral sat in the comfortable office that had been provided for Paul Tasker, the former director of Caprica News Network, who had been given the job of heading up the new IFB Network.

"Let me get this straight. You want us to do a fly-on-the-wall documentary on the Military to broadcast along with a recruitment ad for your new Academy. What sort of access will we have?" Dianna Biers, the news reporter asked, almost salivating at the opportunity being laid before her.

Aaron turned to face Dianna. "The Admiral has agreed to unlimited access as long as you do not interfere with the operational duties of the fleet. You will, of course, be escorted by Marines for security purposes, as would any visitors to a Military vessel."

"Of course I'll do it. This is every reporter's wet dream. The chance to show what really goes on in the Military" she smiled at him. "Don't look so worried Aaron, I will make sure that the Admiral gets to view the footage before we air it. In fact, I've just had an idea. You were trained in public relations, weren't you?"

"Yes, I am" he replied cautiously.

"How would you feel about appearing on camera to give the viewers a history of the Colonial Fleet and a background on Admiral Kronus and this fleet he acquired? That must be a story in itself."

"I don't know Dianna"

"Well, we have plenty of time for you to decide. In the meantime, let me get a camera crew together and I'll head over to the Orpheus with you to get started."

**Government Ship – Kobol One – Senate Room**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, yesterday was a great day for the fleet, the election of a new governing body is a major step to restoring our way of life. We still have a long ways to go though, the goal of this session is to prioritize the tasks we have ahead of us and if we can agree, put some of these plans into action" Eileen addressed the gathered Senate members.

"Madam Governor" the representative for Caprica, Mr Robert Blackner spoke up. "I move that the matter of an economic base be established as soon as possible. We have industrial ships and space on some of the larger ships to start setting up shops to sell any goods produced. The agro ships are also producing more food than we need to merely survive so establishing a market should not be too difficult."

"I second the motion." The representative for Picon Dorothea Amelie added.

Eileen smiled, 'maybe this wouldn't be as difficult as I thought'.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Starboard Hanger Deck**

On any given day, the hanger deck on a Colonial Battlestar was a hive of activity. It didn't matter if it was day or night, the work of keeping the ships compliment of vipers and raptors combat ready was an ongoing task.

Dianna and her camera crew filmed the activity that constituted the daily work of the knuckle draggers and they marvelled at the dedication of the crew.

"So, Chief, what motivates your people to carry on after the destruction of the colonies?" she asked.

Master Chief Petty Officer Tyler Garner glanced up at where Dianna was standing to the side of the camera. "Well, it certainly isn't the money" he joked. "Until the Senate organises the economy, nobody gets paid. No. When you join the Military, you swear an oath to protect the Colonies and to Military personnel duties and honour are not just words – they are way of life. If you were to ask any member of the Military, from the Admiral down to the lowliest kitchen hand, you receive the same answer."

"Thank you for your time Chief" Dianna said smiling as the Chief stood up and walked back towards the viper he had been repairing before she had interrupted him.

**Government Ship – Kobol One – Governors Office**

Eileen Fields sat at the desk, a pile of folders accumulating across its surface. Across from her sat the blond cylon known as Gianne Six, who was now serving in the role of Governors Aide, with Admiral Kronus in the seat next to her.

"What's the situation with supplies, Miss Six?" Eileen asked.

Opening the folder on her lap to review her notes, Gianne began her report. "Water supplies are holding steady. Between the agro ships and the new hydroponics bays on the Superliners, we have enough fruit and vegetables to provide everyone with food with some slight excess. Meat is going to become a concern if we are not able to replenish supplies within eight months. Tylium reserves are enough to last the fleet for approximately 6 months before we will need to start mining."

She looked up at Governor and Admiral. "Aaron informs me that mining operations on the surface have been able to fill all the available space on the Military freighters and the Constructstar Ganymede. They are continuing to mine enough to replace the ore stocks used by the fleet and supply the construction yards with enough to finish the ship conversions."

Admiral Kronus added "I've instructed the mining ships to collect as much as possible whilst we're here. If necessary, we'll find space on the Battlestars to store some of it."

"That's good Admiral. Now what about the fleet census?"

Gianne glanced back at her notes before answering. "The census is now complete and copies have gone to the Senate Representatives. They should be able to find some kind of employment for the populace soon. Representative Caso has a meeting booked with you tomorrow regarding opening up the mall on Cloud 11. Admiral, the census also uncovered another human form cylon in the fleet. I feel I should warn you, this cylon was not with the fleet in the nebula for very long. So she hasn't been affected by the radiation like the rest of us. We have identified her as a 3."

"Let me know what ship she's on and I'll have the Marines place her in the brig." Admiral Kronus said.

Gianne nodded sullenly. "She's going under the name of Karina Leobrin, working as a Raptor ECO onboard the Battlestar Theseus."

"Admiral, I heard that you are going to open up the Academy ships as a mobile campus. How is the recruitment drive going?" Eileen asked.

Admiral Kronus shifted in his seat. "Actually Madame Governor that was the next thing I wanted to discuss with you. Miss Biers and her team have put together a documentary and recruitment advertisement to be shown on IFB. I have a copy in my quarters and wondered if you would like to join me for dinner tonight and we can review the tape before it airs tomorrow."

Eileen smiled. If she didn't know better, it almost sounded like she was being asked out on a date. Not that she would have minded. "I'd love to. Shall we say eight o'clock?"


	16. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 15: Vacation is over.**

**Battlestar Theseus – CIC**

With the lull in their journey, the CIC was operating with only a skeleton staff as Commander Ben Small had allowed his crew some long overdue shore leave aboard the entertainment ships of the fleet. Commander Small was sitting in for his communications officer when the call came in from Admiral Kronus.

"Theseus Actual, this is Orpheus Actual."

"Go Ahead, Orpheus" Commander Small replied.

"Ben, I've just been informed that you have a major security problem onboard your ship" Admiral Kronus said.

That certainly got Commander Small's attention. He suddenly sat up straight in his seat, an action that did not go unnoticed by his XO, Colonel Anya Matthews.

Admiral Kronus continued. "The fleet census has thrown us a curve ball. There's a cylon working on the Theseus. Now, with what happened at Valhalla that in its self would not have been a problem, but the ship she was on, was not in the nebula long enough for the radiation to affect her like the others. I need you to detain her in your brig until we determine exactly how much of a threat she poses to the fleet. She goes by the name of Karina Leobrin."

Quickly finishing his conversation with the Admiral, Commander Small hung up the headset on the console and beckoned Colonel Matthews over.

"Anya, we have a problem. Recall all personnel and have a squad of Marines arrest Lieutenant Leobrin. I want her under heavy guard in the brig ASAP. Then I need you to organise a deck by deck search of the ship for any unusual equipment or explosives. Search every nook and cranny."

**Battlestar Theseus – Pilots Recreation Room**

The room was packed with personnel watching the card game underway in the corner of the room, when they were interrupted by Sergeant Neill and his six Marines in full combat gear. They forced their way through the assembled crowd towards the ongoing game, levelling their weapons at a surprised Lieutenant Leobrin.

"What the Frak's going on Sergeant?" she asked.

The room had suddenly gone silent, everyone watching the unfolding events in front of them.

"Sir, you will surrender your sidearm and come with us" the Marine sergeant calmly stated.

Lieutenant Leobrin threw another couple of cubits onto the pile that had accumulated in the centre of the table. "Like frak I will!" she vehemently responded.

All at once, the six Marines flicked the safety catches off on their rifles. "Sir, I've been ordered to escort you to the brig. Now, I won't ask you again. Stand up slowly and surrender your sidearm or I WILL shoot you" the sergeant responded.

Leobrin threw down her cards, standing up and reaching for her sidearm. Just as she managed to fire the first shot, six rifles fired back at her. Two shots hit her arm, causing her to drop the weapon. Another two hitting her knees causing her to drop to the floor bleeding and screaming in agony.

**Battlestar Theseus – Deck C – Frame 28**

The Marine detachment onboard the Battlestar was slowly working its way through the immense warren of rooms, corridors, service crawl ways and ventilation ducts that comprised the interior of the escort Battlestar. So far, apart from an unauthorised still in one of the engineering spaces, they had found nothing out of the ordinary.

Beta squad had just finished checking the area around frame 27 and were moving past the bulkhead by frame 28. "Corporal Danson, check the head, Corporal Benson, check this section of corridor. Corporal Hall, check the small arms locker. I'll check astrometrics lab" sergeant Murray ordered as they proceeded to start the search on the next section of the massive ship.

Less than 5 minutes had passed when a shout came from the small arms locker. "Sergeant, I've found something I think you should see."

The tall, muscular form of Sergeant Murray crossed the threshold of the hatchway. "What is it, Hall?"

Pointing towards a pallet of cases containing G4 detonators, stacked at the back of the room, he replied "looks like a small transmitter tucked behind there, Sir. It seems to be sending some kind of beacon."

Quickly surveying the object, Sergeant Murray made a decision. "Can you disable it?"

"Yes, Sir"

"Then do it. When you have disabled it, take it directly to Commander Small in the CIC."

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

Admiral Kronus strolled into the CIC. The obvious look of impatience on his face as they waited for the results of the arrest and search on the Battlestar Theseus, was begin to make the Orpheus's crew nervous.

"Admiral, report coming in from the Theseus. They have detained the Cylon and have found a transmitter hidden in a small arms locker. Sir, they say it was transmitting a beacon before they disabled it" Ensign Jason Cain reported.

The Admiral looked across at Colonel Omega. "Looks like our time here is up Karl. Recall the survey teams and have the mining ships abandon operations on the planet and return to the fleet, ASAP. I think we'll be having visitors before too long and we must be ready."

"At least we managed to have a few days to relax" Colonel Omega said as he walked away to carry out the Admirals orders.

**Battlestar Orpheus – Long Range Patrol**

Zeus and Burnout had been on patrol for just over 30 minutes at the extreme edge of the fleets Dradis envelope. With so many Battlestars in the fleet, CAP duties had been divided up so that all the pilots in the fleet would have an opportunity to share in this long hated responsibility. This allowed all the squadrons plenty of relaxation between rotations.

"Hey, Zeus" Burnout called over the radio. "I'm picking up a sensor reading at the edge of my Dradis range. Do you see it?"

Zeus adjusted his Dradis controls. "Yeah, I got it, Burnout. Hang on; I'm just getting a fix on it. Frak!! It's the Cylons ...... and they've got 12 Basestar's just emerging from behind the sun. We better get back and warn the fleet." With that said, he fired his retro, throwing the mark VII viper into a hard 180 degree turn before firing his thrusters on a heading back towards the remnants of the Colonies.

"I'm right on your tail, Zeus" Burnout replied, copying the actions of the Orpheus's CAG.

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

Ensign Cain was manning the communications console when the priority one message came in from Captain Dualla. He quickly relayed the information he received to Captain Pearce, who rushed over to check the Dradis display. An action which did not go unnoticed by either the Admiral or the Colonel.

"Admiral, Zeus and Burnout just picked up the Cylons in this system. Dradis confirms 12 Basestar's. They must have been hiding behind the sun."

Admiral Kronus sighed. "So the Cylons want to try and pick us off in orbit where we would be unable to manoeuvre quickly. Colonel, what's the status of the fleet?"

Colonel Omega quickly checked the reports he had laid on the top of the plot table. "The mining ships are back in formation. The last of the survey teams are on their way back now – should be onboard in about 3 minutes. All ships have confirmed receipt of the emergency co-ordinates and have spun up their FTL's ready to make the jump on our command."

Admiral Kronus couldn't help smiling to himself. 'Thought they'd catch up napping did they, well not on my watch'. He turned to face the communications console. "Ensign Cain, signal the fleet to start jumping in sequence. As we're the last to jump, we'll hold off the Cylons until we're sure that the last ship is away. Colonel, launch all vipers, and inform them that I expect all of our birds to return."

"Aye, Sir" the Colonel replied. "Captain Pearce, launch the vipers, weapons, stand by for enemy suppression barrage. Helm, bring us around an put us in a position between the enemy and the fleet."


	17. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

_Previously:_

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

Ensign Cain was manning the communications console when the priority one message came in from Captain Dualla. He quickly relayed the information he received to Captain Pearce, who rushed over to check the Dradis display. An action which did not go unnoticed by either the Admiral or the Colonel.

"Admiral, Zeus and Burnout just picked up the Cylons in this system. Dradis confirms 12 Basestar's. They must have been hiding behind the sun."

Admiral Kronus sighed. "So the Cylons want to try and pick us off in orbit where we would be unable to manoeuvre quickly. Colonel, what's the status of the fleet?"

Colonel Omega quickly checked the reports he had laid on the top of the plot table. "The mining ships are back in formation. The last of the survey teams are on their way back now – should be onboard in about 3 minutes. All ships have confirmed receipt of the emergency co-ordinates and have spun up their FTL's ready to make the jump on our command."

Admiral Kronus couldn't help smiling to himself. 'Thought they'd catch up napping did they, well not on my watch'. He turned to face the communications console. "Ensign Cain, signal the fleet to start jumping in sequence. As we're the last to jump, we'll hold off the Cylons until we're sure that the last ship is away. Colonel, launch all vipers, and inform them that I expect all of our birds to return."

"Aye, Sir" the Colonel replied. "Captain Pearce, launch the vipers, weapons, stand by for enemy suppression barrage. Helm, bring us around an put us in a position between the enemy and the fleet."

**Chapter 16: Striking Back.**

"**ACTION STATIONS, ACTION STATIONS, SET CONDITION ONE THROUGHOUT THE SHIP! DC TEAMS TO STANDBY"** Captain Pearce announced over the shipboard PA system.

Admiral Kronus stared at a Dradis monitor, studying the formation that the Basestar's had assumed as they closed in on the fleets location. "Not this time Colonel. We have been presented with an opportunity here, and I don't intend to let that slip by. Signal the rest of the battlegroup to take up a flared formation around us. Battle Group 2 to our left flank and Battle Group 3 to our right flank. We're going to give the tin-heads a fight they won't soon forget."

The frigates Hermes and Heracles were at out lying positions with the Destroyer Demeter and the Gunstars Achillies and Orion in a battle line behind them. The third line consisted of the three Battlestars of the group – Orpheus, Morpheus and Theseus. The battlegroup's viper squadrons leading the way in a standard spearhead formation, with Raptors hanging back to assist with AWAC's. In a matter of moments, the ships of the two new Battle Groups took up station on the flanks of the flag ship, assuming the same formation as the Orpheus's group of ships. All the ships increased speed to intercept the incoming armada, rapidly closing the distance between the two fleets.

"The lead Basestar's have launched raiders!" Lieutenant Roberts yelled across the CIC.

Colonel Omega calmly called back "Inform all vipers to only engage the raiders, leave the Baseships to us."

**Battlestar Orpheus – Viper Squadron**

"Zeus to all vipers, weapons hot! Engage raiders only, fire when in range**!"** Zeus ordered.

As the two groups neared, the vipers unleashed a massive volley of fire into the phalanx of Cylon raiders. Even with the front ranks destroyed, there were still a huge number of raiders engaging the viper squadrons and if they weren't kept busy could inflict very serious damage upon the capital ships of the Colonial forces.

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

"Flank speed!" Admiral Kronus ordered! "Set forward batteries for salvo fire. Target the closest basestar as we come into range!"

The Colonial Battlegroups surged forward plowing their way through the viscious fighting of the vipers and raiders, heading directly for the Basestar's.

**Frigate Hermes**

The small Colonial Frigate was the first ship to reach the Cylon Fleet. Without slowing it's speed it changed course abruptly to present its broadside. In a line along its port flank, 24 missile tube doors flowered open. The same action was being undertaken simultaneously by all the other frigates.

"Launch all missiles at the central axis and then give us some distance!" Major Garner ordered.

"Missiles away!" The tactical officer announced, as the ship suddenly away from the Basestar that it had been targeting.

"Multiple hits! Dradis is showing moderate damage to basestar's " Captain Bamber announced.

Major Garner smiled, they may have been only a small vessel compared to the mighty Gunstar's and Battlestar's, but they could still seriously hurt the enemy. "Helm, bring us around for another run. Tactical, have them reload the missile tubes with new sundowner missiles."

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

As the attacking Colonial forces reached their designated targets, the Sundowner missiles (a new missile developed by Militech before the holocaust) from the frigates hit the targets, the Cylon base stars, shearing one of the arms off of one and disabling another two.

"Basestar's are launching missiles at the Gunstar's, Admiral! We'll be in weapons in a couple of minutes!"

"Now entering weapons range, Admiral. Basestar directly ahead".

"Inform the Commander's of the other Battlestars to fire their main batteries at the central axis as they come to bare. Gunstar's are to concentrate their fire on the missile batteries and hanger bays." Kronus ordered.

"Multiple missiles inbound!" Omega reported as he watched the main Dradis display.

"Initiate enemy suppression barrage!"

The huge turrets on the dorsal surface sent up a wall of flack intercepting any of the incoming missiles causing explosions which lit up the darkness of space. A few missiles managed to get through though. The ship shuttered as a missile impacted the hull, sending equiptment and personnel flying. Sparks erupted from several consoles.

"Continue firing!" Admiral Kronus barked.

The massive rail gun's in the bow of the ship rumbled as the magnetic accelerators forced the kinetic warhead out at half the speed of light sending it directly towards the Cylon Basestar. As it impacted the central core, it tore a hole right the way through the superstructure and out the other side. Internal explosions could be seen briefly, before a spectacular explosion literally obliterated the ship.

**Battlestar Morpheus – CIC**

As the Orpheus's target disintegrated, the weapons officer activated the Morpheus's rail gun's firing mechanism.

"Impact amidships. We've got depressurization forwards of frame thirty two and major structural damage on the starboard flight pod." Colonel Marcus Greenbean called out as he studied the damage control master panel.

"Helm, roll to starboard to sixty degrees! Let's bring the port batteries into play and get DC parties into those damaged area's, we'll need to have somewhere to land our birds when this is all over." Commander Fischer ordered.

"Sir, Titan and Atlantis have destroyed their targets and are moving in on another couple of Basestar's" the tactical officer informed them.

Commander Fischer smiled briefly. "Let's get this Basestar finished and bag ourselves another then. Can't have them showing us up now can we Ensign" he chuckled.

**Golden Spur Squadron**

"Frak!" Major Peter 'Mincemeat' Horner exclaimed as he was momentarily blinded by the flash when the Destroyer Ares exploded.

The battle between the Colonial vipers and Cylon raiders had been brutal. They were out-numbered four to one as it was, but they were slowly gaining ground. He glanced down at his Dradis display.

"Spur Two and Spur Three, this is Spur Actual. We've got three squadrons of raiders heading towards the Olympia. I need you to intercept those raiders. Olympia has taken enough damage as it is." he ordered as he came up behind another raider and fired.

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

"Admiral", Colonel Omega reported "seven Basestar's have now been taken out. We've lost the Ares, the Dionysus and the Hades. Adelphia reports that their main energiser has been damaged and she has to withdraw. The Battlestar Morpheus has major structural damage to her starboard flight pod and the Titan reports hull decompressions along her dorsal surface."

Admiral Kronus looked at the plot table for a minute. "How are our vipers doing, Colonel?"

Omega gave a tight smile. "So far, their holding their own, but they'll need to start landing for refuelling and rearming soon."

Kronus nodded his acknowledgement as another impact caused the ship to rock violently. "What was that?" he asked directing his attention to Captain Pearce, who was standing by the tactical station.

"Sir, Minotaur and Vigilant have destroyed another two Basestars that were trying to flank us."

Ensign Cain placed his hand to ear to hear the transmission coming in over the communications channel better, before smiling and looking towards the plot table. "Sir, Achillies reports that their basestar is disabled! They're requesting permission to eliminate it!"

Kronus thought for a minute. "Negative. Inform Major McCall, he's to lead a Marine boarding party to that ship. Destroy the centurions but take the humanoids prisoner. We can interrogate them later."

**Bronze Arrow Squadron**

"Frakk it!" Lieutenant Johannson muttered as his viper the bullets from a raider stitched a line across his wing, "there's just too many of them."

"Talk like that will get you killed, Crash", Jolly shouted. "Just concentrate on blasting them out of the frakking sky."

He sighed, "Sure, Crash." As he headed towards a raider that was firing on Lieutenant Novocek, the raider suddenly broke off in the direction of the remaining Basestars. "Hey, Crash. Their retreating!"

**Battlestar Orpheus – CIC**

"Sir, Cylons are breaking off their attack. Raiders are retreating." Captain Pearce announced.

Admiral Kronus pushed himself up off the floor, where he had been knocked during the last missile hit, and looked at the Dradis display. Sure enough, of the three Basestars that had survived, one had already jumped away. Another was retrieving its raiders and would probably jump soon. The third, Kronus already knew was being boarded by Colonial Marines and hopefully would soon be under their control.

"Message to all vipers and raptors. Return to the barn." He told Ensign Cain. Turning to Colonel Omega, who was nursing a broken arm from the look of things, he said "Let me know as soon as our birds are home, when the Marine have secured the Basestar have a raptor sent to retrieve we'll assess our damage and rejoin the Aegis. She can hold it in her dock until we rejoin the fleet." With that he left the CIC to return to his Quarters for a rest. He had realised during this battle, that he was not a young man anymore and the stress of recent weeks had finally caught up with him.


	18. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 17: Finding Family.**

**Colonial Government Ship – Kobol One. **

**Governor General's Office**

Admiral Kronus and Governor Eileen Fields had spent the last hour reviewing the last battle with the Cylon battle-group. The loss of two Colonial ships was unfortunate, but luck had been on the side of the Colonial people this day. Over 95% of the crews had managed to evacuate before their ships were destroyed. The fleet tugs were already going about the task of collecting up the wreckage and ferrying it to the foundry ship for re-processing.

Eileen had been suitably impressed by the calm efficiency with which the fleet's military and manufacturing personnel were working. "What's the status of our newest acquisition, Andrew?" she asked, referring to the disabled Basestar.

Kronus let a wry grin appear on his face. "That little gamble of mine has turned out to be a goldmine for us Eileen. Apart from the weapons systems and power plants, the Basestar is virtually intact. I've had Colonel Cavil and Miss Six shuttle over to isolate the hybrid from the ships systems, and Lieutenant Sharon has been working on downloading the information in the Basestar's mainframe into a secure computer terminal aboard the Electronics ship. Let me tell you, that database is going to be a great asset to us on our journey."

Eileen leaned forward in her chair. "What do you mean, Andrew?"

Admiral Kronus sighed softly. "Galactica has had it bad. The Cylon's have been continually attacking her since she left the Cyrannus system. She's approximately 30 jumps ahead of us on our current heading but Bill Adama has roughly 60 ships with him, **All **civilian. From the information we have been able to extract so far, the Red Line Fleet has disappeared from the Greystone Yards at Lemuria and there are at least 5 Battlestar's that the Cylon's cannot account for."

"You mean there are more survivors out there somewhere!" Eileen shouted incredulously.

"That's precisely what I mean, and at least one of those ships would appear to be nearby. The Cylon sensors picked up what they interpreted to be a sensor echo during the battle. I've ordered the fleets raptors to initiate a search of the surrounding space for any sign of those ships. Hopefully one of the raptors will make contact soon."

**Colonial Raptor 219 – 3****rd**** jump forward from the fleet.**

The small Colonial Raptor emerged from its FTL jump in a brief flash of light. Lieutenant Martin Wise quickly diverted his eyes away from the view of space outside the Raptor. The bright glare from the nebula was hard blinding his vision, so he focussed on the instrument panel until his sight could adjust.

"Anything on Dradis, Hawk?" he called back to his new ECO. A recent graduate from the new Military Academy on the Thermopalae.

"I'm getting intermittent readings of a planetary body in the middle of all this mess. Can you take us in on a heading of zero-two-three karom one-two-niner, I'll see if I can get a clearer reading of what's out there."

Lieutenant Wise gently swung the Raptor around onto the heading 'Hawk' had given him and gave a brief burst on the thrusters to attain some forward momentum. Within seconds they emerged from the edge of the gas cloud into clear space.

"Dradis is clearing up now, Snowman. There is definitely a habitable planet in here. I'm also picking up a few ships sitting on the planets surface. Colonial Transponders. There's also a hell of a lot of debris in planetary orbit. Maybe from a Battlestar. You don't think that it's the Galactica do you?"

Lieutenant Wise twisted around in the pilots seat until he could look directly at the nervous young Ensign. "Don't start jumping to conclusions, Hawk. We'll cruise in and make a visual ident before we jump back to the fleet. Who knows, there may be survivors down on the planets surface who need rescuing."

Wise gave the Raptor a controlled burst on the thrusters again and they started to enter the debris field. Using the most accurate sensors they had aboard (the old eyeball MK1), they scanned the largest pieces of wreckage. The debris appeared to be a mix of both Colonial and Cylon. A section of bulkhead floated across in front of the Raptor, gently spinning. As the bulkhead spun away from them, a massive object came into view, easily identified as the flight pod of a Battlestar, virtually intact. Emblazed proudly on the side was the ships name.......Pegasus.

"Oh Frak!" both exclaimed in unison.

**Raptor 802 – 2 Jump's starboard of the Fleet.**

Raptor 802, from the Battlestar Minoa had emerged from its jump into the middle of an asteroid belt. Lieutenant (JG) Zoe Knight was frantically piloting the small craft out of the way of the spinning hunks of rock.

"Hey Zoe, I've got something on Dradis. Multiple contacts. Try and hold us at the outer edge of the belt until I can get a better fix on whats out there OK", her ECO Ensign Mark Thomas called out as he was thrown back into his seat in the Raptors rear compartment, from the sharp G forces caused by the turns Lieutenant Knight was making.

As the Colonial craft neared the leading edge of the asteroid belt, Lieutenant Knight slowed their momentum to match that of the surrounding rocks. "Zoe, I'm picking up Colonial Transponders out there. Running them through the database now."

Ensign Thomas tapped away at the small keyboard for a couple of minutes, occasionally glancing at the screen directly in front of him. "How many are you picking up, Mark?" Lieutenant Knight asked.

"Dradis confirms 32 Colonial Transponders. Hang on", he looked back at the computer monitor as an audible tone was heard through-out the Raptor. "Idents confirmed. 7 Militech frigates and 25 ships from the Red Line Fleet. 5 Battlestars, 12 Battlecruisers, 8 Destroyers and 6 Fleet Supply Tenders and the Star Kobol."

"Lords of Kobol!" Zoe exclaimed. "Let's go and make contact and then we can all jump back to the fleet together. Frak! The Admiral will be happy today."


	19. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: BSG belongs to Glen Larson and the corporations respectively. Sorry I am uncertain who owns which rights at this time unfortunately it is not me. No infringement is intended and this is just a fan fiction for the author amusement and to hopefully entertain others.

**Chapter 18: Family Reunion.**

**Colonial Raptor 612 – 2nd jump forward from the fleet.**

Lieutenant James 'Wave' Barolay and his ECO, Lieutenant (JG) Ryan 'Preacher' Short from the Battlestar Minotaur had spent the last 2 hours running sensor scans of a small sysem of planets that the fleet would shortly be passing through. The only thing of interest in this fairly barren system had been the discovery of bovines on the fouth planet, that the fleet could use to restock their freezers with fresh meat.

"Hey Wave. Check your Dradis will you?" Preacher called out from the ECO station in the rear compartment,as an object suddenly appeared on his display.

Wave turned in his seat. "What's wrong, Preacher?"

"Either I'm getting a sensor echo or there's another raptor just jumped into the system" he replied. The curiosity and concern evident in his voice.

Quickly adjusting the controls on his Dradis display Wave called out "that's no sensor echo!" Keying his radio,he took a deep breath. "Colonial Raptor. This is Raptor six-one-two. Identify yourself or you will be fired upon".

For what seemed like an eternity, all they heard was static. Then came the reply. "Raptor six-one-two, this is Colonial Raptor three-niner-six from the Battlestar Nemesis. Sending recognition codes now".

Wave looked back at his ECO questioningly. "Wasn't the Nemesis assigned to the Ghost Fleet at Borallis?"

Preacher nodded before checking the incoming data transmission against the Fleet database. "Codes read as authentic" he said incredulously.

After a brief exchange of information regarding their respective ships, Wave sent the co-ordinates for the Nemesis to jump to for a rende-vous with the fleet, before the two raptors jumped away to return to their base ships.

**Battlestar Orpheus CIC - 30 minutes later.**

Admiral Kronus was standing at the Dradis console with Govenor General Elaine Fields and Colonel Omega. He had just finished filling them in on what the Raptor scouts had found.

The smile on the Govenor's face at the thought of more survivors was enough to heighten the moral of all those in the CIC. "It's incredible Andrew. Two other fleets of ships, a source of fresh food and another stopping point for Galactica. Who would have believed it possible this far from the Colonies. Although I admit I'm confused about the terms you referred to...Redline Fleet and the Ghost Fleet."

Kronus smiled. "It's quite understandable Madam Govenor. After the armistace was signed, the Colonial fleet suddenly found themselves with an excess of ships. The Quorum decided that after all the money that had been spent to build up the fleet, that it wanted to get it's money worth. Some bright spark came up with the idea of a hidden fleet that could be re-activated quickly if the Cylons ever returned and over-ran the Colonies again like they did during the war on Tauron and Sagittaron. And so the excess of ships was divided into two fleets and sent to the remotest parts of the system. Borallis and Lemuria. After a few years, the Quorum realised just how much money was being spent on keeping the ships crewed and the decision was taken to mothball the ships and just maintain a patrol presence at their respective locations. In recent years, those two fleet basically became a source of scorn in the Adminstration. President Adar was even petitioning to have those ships sent for scrap."

Elaine nodded her head as she took in all this new information.

"Dradis Contact off the starboard bow. Sir, It's the Nemesis" Lieutenant Gary Roberts, the tactical officer called out. Then he glanced across towards his superior officers, "I'm confirming Colonial recognition codes coming from 26 ships. There's Battlestars, Cruisers, Warstars and Fleet supply ships. Sir, it's the entire Ghost Fleet!"

"Well I'll be!" Colonel Omega exclaimed loudly.

Glancing down at his console again as an alarm sounded loudly and running his fingers swiftly over the keyboard, Lieutenant Roberts called out "New Dradis Contact off the port bow. Sending standard challenge. Admiral, I'm getting recognition codes from an additional 32 ships. And Admiral... 7 of them are the Militech Frigates that we thought had been lost back in the Colonies!"

Shaking her head in disbelief, Elaine turned towards Admiral Kronus. "That's another 58 ships that have survived the holocaust. I'm glad I was never a gambler because the odds of all those ships plus our own fleet and those with the Galactica, not only escaping the destruction - but also following the same route across the vastness of space and meeting up - why it's beyond incalculable. The Gods must surely be looking out for us!"

Looking across the CIC towards the communictions station, Admiral Kronus got the attention of Ensign Cain. "Send a message to those ships, I want to see the commanding officers of those two fleets in the wardroom in one hour."

"Aye, Sir"

Turning his attention back to the occupants around the central plotting table he announced. "Govenor, I assume you will want to sit in an this meeting". Elaine only nodded her head in reply. "Colonel, why don't you join us as well"

**Battlestar Orpheus Wardroom - 1hour later.**

Letting out a sigh of resignation, Admiral Kronus straightened his uniform, before opening the hatchway that led to the wardroom. Stepping through he glanced across the room at the occupants who were milling around the refreshments. A look of surprise and smile came across his face as he recognised an old friend.

"I should have know you would find a way to survive, Paul. It's great to see you again. How longs it been - 10 years?"

A short, slightly overweight bald man, wearing the uniform of a Rear Admiral, raised his head from where he had been helping himself to a cup of java. "Well, what have we here? Andy Kronus, back in uniform and it only took the end of the worlds to do it!" he remarked with a smirk on his face. "I take it your responsible for this circus then."

The Govenor Fields, Colonel Omega and the four other Fleet officers chuckled quietly at this interplay between the two old friends.

Admiral Kronus sat down in the seat at the head of the table. "I always had a feeling that the Cylons weren't done with the Colonies, you know that. I'd have given anything to have been wrong, but at least I spent the time preparing just in case. Unlike those fools at Fleet HQ and in the Government. Now that your here, I suppose that you'll be taking over as Fleet Admiral."

The others gradually sat themselves down around the conference table after grabbing a cup of java. Admiral Paul Urie sat himself down at the opposite end of the table from Kronus.

"Andrew. If President Adar had not have issued a recall of all ex-military personnel I would have been the senior surviving member of the Admiralty, but as it stands there are two surviving Fleet officers that are senior to me. You and Bill Adama. I won't insist that you step down, anyway aren't a lot of these ships yours?"

"Ok. If you two gentlemen have sorted that out, why don't we get on with reason we assembled here for in the first place." Surveying the faces around the table Elaine continued. "Just so that you gentlemen are aware, my name is Elaine Field and I am here in my position as the head of the government for this fleet. As we found out that Laura Roslin, who is with the Galactica's fleet, has been duly sworn in as President. We have established the position of Govenor General and a senate of representatives to act as the Government until such a time as we meet up with the Galactica. Now, maybe you can tell us more about your respective commands."

Admiral Urie leaned back in his seat. "Well, I suppose I should start. My ship is the Columbia II class Battlestar Nemesis. When the Cylon attacked the Colonies, we were on station patrolling the area around Borallis. When we heard the message from Picon Fleet HQ, I sent my engineering and deck crews aboard the ships of the Red Line Fleet in order to to get them operational. Then we heard that over half the Fleet had been destroyed and Admiral Nagala was leading a counter attack over Virgon. We waited as long as we dared, but no-one came to activate the Fleet. My computer specialist came up with the idea of linking the systems on the ships to the Nemesis and remote piloting them out of the area. We sat in the asteroid belt for a couple of days whilst I sent our raptors out around the Colonies to rescue as many personnel as we could that were trapped aboard the remains of the Fleet. We managed to save around 15,000 officers and enlisted. I used them to provide each ship with a skeleton crew and made the decision to try and find the 13th Colony and try and start over. We thought that we were the only survivors until our patrol came across your raptor."

The young, dark skinned officer wearing a commanders insignia who was sitting beside Colonel Omega then spoke up. "Madam Govenor, Admiral. My name is Commander Jonathon Nelson from the Valkirie Class Battlestar Sphinx. We were on a routine patrol of the Greystone yards at Lemuria when the Cylons attacked. I was going to jump my ship to Virgon and join up with Admiral Nagala, but before we could jump your frigates arrived with enough personnel to start re-activating the Ghost Fleet with skeleton crews. That is when we found out that the ships were in a right state. It seems that the Fleet had recently started to cannibalise the ships stored there. We managed to cobble together enough parts from the worst ships to get the others operational. Your Frigates meanwhile, in conjunction with our raptors were able to make runs around a number of outposts in the system rescuing personnel and stripping the outposts of anything they could. Food, medicine, clothing and machinery. Just as we were jumping out of the yards, the Cylons arrived with 5 Basestars and launched a barrage of nukes at the yards. I believe the detonations masked our jump signatures as we have not picked up any signs of the Cylon since then. Commander Cameron of the Charon informed me of your plans Admiral and we made the decision to try and join up with you and now here we are."

"Gentlemen, it seems that the Cylons were not as thorough with there genocide as they thought. Now, those ships of your are all outdated and will need time in the yards to bring them up to current fleet standards. Luckily we have to construction yards in the Fleet that are currently busy converting some supertankers to provide accommodation for the civilian population. When those have been completed we'll start work on your ships. In the meantime, I'll have Aaron here start to find personnel to fill out the crews of those ships."

The officers all nodded their agreement with those plans, even as Admiral Kronus stood.

"We still waiting on one of our scouts to report in before we jump out of the system. Why don't you all join me in my quarters for a celebratory glass or two of ambrosia."


End file.
